Pitzer’s Young Alumni Achievement Award recognizes graduates of the last 10 years who apply Pitzer’s unique educational experience to their professional life and find creative and innovative ways to make impactful changes in the community.
Mere Abrams ’10, 2019 Young Alumni Achievement Award HonoreeMere Abrams is a gender specialist and consultant who is helping the world understand that “the idea that there is male and female isn’t incorrect, it is just incomplete.” Abrams, whose pronouns are they/them/theirs, is a writer, speaker, educator, researcher and social worker. They reach a worldwide audience through public speaking, publications, social media—@meretheir has 17,000 Instagram followers and counting—and their gender support services practice, https://onlinegendercare.com.
Abrams’ writings and work have been featured in numerous publications and media outlets, including The Transgender Teen: A Handbook for Professionals and Parents Supporting Trans and Non-Binary Youth; Who Are You?: A Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity; Healthline Media; and CBS News. They are currently working on a pair of books for teens, parents and professionals on gender health and gender development.
They also have served as the associate director of clinical research and the director of community engagement at the University of California, San Francisco’s Child and Adolescent Gender Center (CAGC), where they developed city- and county-wide programs for transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive youth. They continue to collaborate with CAGC on a longitudinal National Institutes of Health-funded study—the first of its kind—that measures the impact of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones on children and adolescents.
At Pitzer, Abrams designed their own major, community-based research, and founded Girl Talk, an ongoing program for underserved teens at Garey High School in Pomona, CA. They worked closely with the College’s Community Engagement Center (then known as CCCSI) as a student and as an urban fellow after graduation. They served as CCCSI’s liaison for the Pitzer in Ontario (now CASA Pitzer) program and Prototypes Women’s Center. Abrams went on to earn their MSW degree from Smith College’s School for Social Work.
“My Pitzer education supported personal and professional growth and exploration at a time when I needed it most,” Abrams says. “At Pitzer, I developed a deeper understanding of my individual identity and personal values that would later shape my chosen career and life path.”
