Carey Candrian, PhD

Associate Professor and Director of LGBTQ+ Research and Community Engagement, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine

VP, Lesbian Health Fund

2024 Fellow

Carey Candrian, PhD (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Director of LGBTQ+ Research and Community Engagement at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Candrian is also VP of the Lesbian Health Fund and on the Board of Directors at GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing Health Equity. She received her MA in Organizational Communication and PhD in Health Communication from the University of Colorado, and completed post-doctoral training in Health Literacy from the Institute of Communication and Health at the University of Lugano, Switzerland.

Dr. Candrian's career goal is to improve the way older LGBTQ people are cared for throughout life, and especially around end of life, and to effect change on an interaction and policy level so that older LGBTQ+ adults receive the support they and their loved ones want, when they need it most. Her research examines how communication affects outcomes in healthcare - specifically how it impacts older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) adults, and those who care for them. She has spent much of her career investigating how healthcare suffers when patients aren’t able to be open with medical professionals about who and what matters most to them.

Dr. Candrian’s work has been funded by the National Institute on Aging, the Cambia Health Foundation, The Colorado Health Foundation, The Colorado Trust, The Next50 Initiative and The Lesbian Health Fund. She has appeared on Colorado Public Radio, NPR’s Here and Now, PBS NewHour’s Brief But Spectacular and the American Medical Association (AMA) Moving Medicine Series for her work advancing health equity for LGBTQ+ older adults.

Areas of Interest