Harvard Kennedy School Invites Trans Health HQ Founder Back for Fellowship Alumni Panel
Cambridge, MA — September 14, 2025 — Trans Health HQ, a leading digital platform for gender-affirming care navigation, today announced milestones in its growth and highlighted its founder’s journey as part of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation + Change Initiative (SICI).
Founder and CEO Ivan Hsiao, MPH was invited back to the Harvard Kennedy School to sit on an alumni panel alongside other Social Impact + Change Initiative Fellows. Program Director Devin Samuels hosted the event, creating a space for Ivan to reflect on their first year of building Trans Health HQ: balancing the launch of a social impact venture with graduate studies, and publicly coming out as trans.
During the SICI fellowship, Ivan credits a strong community of other trans people, mentors, and allies for providing the guidance and encouragement that sustained early progress. This support allowed Trans Health HQ to evolve rapidly—from a WhatsApp group, to an email inbox, to a gSheet—and eventually into today’s digital care navigation platform, which now supports over 15,000 trans community members and healthcare teams worldwide.
Trans Health HQ’s behind-the-scenes work attracted major recognition. The venture secured second place at the Harvard Business School New Venture Competition and was a finalist in the Harvard Innovation Labs President’s Innovation Challenge. Grants from the Harvard H2A Accelerator and the SICI Fellowship provided crucial early funding.
Today, Trans Health HQ is recognized as a scalable platform addressing both clinician education and health-related social needs, becoming a trusted global resource for gender-affirming care navigation.
Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation + Change Initiative Fellowship: Trans Health HQ Founder & CEO Ivan Hsiao with the program team and other fellows from prior cohorts.
Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation + Change Initiative Fellowship: Trans Health HQ Founder & CEO Ivan Hsiao and Amber Nigam, the co-founder and CEO of basys.ai discuss their experiences building healthcare startups.