Our Staff
Staff
Kalven Link
Administrative Assistant
Kalven (they/them) supports Lavender Spectrum Health as our Administrative Assistant. In their personal and professional life, Kal is committed to assisting trans, queer, and neurodiverse communities in navigating and overcoming the unique challenges they face.
A roller derby skater, proud fur parent, and Vancouver local, Kal is thrilled to join us as we strive to provide LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent individuals with the accessible, reliable, and affirming healthcare they need.
Kate Mittendorf, PhD
Consultant
Kate Mittendorf, PhD, (they/them) is an interdisciplinary translational scientist who studies translational genomics and cancer care delivery by day. As a consultant for Lavender Spectrum Health (and coincidentally, Natalie's spouse), they lend their healthcare informatics, website development, and accessibility expertise to Lavender Spectrum Health (LSH) when need arises. Their passion is improving healthcare for populations that have been marginalized -- both in their scientific career and at LSH. They are queer, trans, and disabled, and are an avid disability activist, whose expertise in disability accessibility in the sciences has been nationally recognized. They live with Natalie, their four rambunctious felines, and their plethora of art and craft supplies in the Hazel Dell area. For more information on their scientific pursuits, visit their website.
Providers
Carey, MSW
Independent Clinical Social Worker Associate
My Name is Carey (She/They) I am excited to be part of this vibrant and supportive community. I have a Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington. My specialized areas of practice in neurodivergence, LGBTQIA, gender affirming care, trauma, and family systems. I have been an activist and member of the Queer community since the early otts. In my spare time I can be found playing in the dirt and brewing various potions in the kitchen. I am supported by my lovely wife, our wonderful child, and poorly behaved cats.
Tyler RN, BSN
Registered Nurse
Tyler (he/they) joined the Lavender Spectrum Health team in May 2024 as a registered nurse. He holds licensures in Washington and Oregon and started practicing in November 2022. Tyler is passionate about providing healthcare to and advocating for disenfranchised groups, such as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse patients.
His first nursing experience was providing care to patients on a post-surgical unit at a level-one trauma center. In this position, he learned how to treat patients with acute and
chronic ailments. Tyler also got to work with a diverse patient population. This gave him a chance to advocate for these diverse patients to ensure they received compassionate, gender-affirming, and culturally sensitive care. He would use his knowledge of caring for LGBTQ+ patients with his fellow nurses to ensure culturally competent care for these
patients.
Tyler graduated from Washington State University School of Nursing in 2022 with honors. During his time in nursing school, Tyler realized his passion for caring for LGBTQ+ patients and educating himself on treatment for LGBTQ+ needs. With so little research on the community, Tyler would search for research articles focusing on treatment for the community. Tyler identifies as gay and genderqueer. He lives in Portland's St. Johns neighborhood with his partner and fur baby.
Natalie Paul, MSN, FNP-C
Family Nurse Practitioner
Natalie Paul, FNP-C (she/they) is a family nurse practitioner in practice since 2016 providing primary care, urgent care, and specialty services. Natalie is particularly passionate about LGBTQ+ health, neurodiversity-affirming healthcare, and gender-affirming hormone therapy. Natalie has a strong interest in keeping current on scientific literature for best practices in primary care and practicing evidence-based medicine.
Natalie’s background includes four years of primary care at a rural community health clinic where she served the low-income rural communities of Southwest Washington and was a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community. She also worked for one year providing telehealth urgent care services in Oregon and Washington, and 18 months in private practice in Portland, Oregon, providing full spectrum primary care.
She has a unique scientific background for a nurse practitioner; she has seven scientific publications (one of which is first author) and had a two-year research fellowship in functional neuroimaging at Duke University where she studied how mindfulness buffers the brain from the effects of early life stress. She continues to publish scientific research on improving health of the LGBTQ community with her spouse, a scientist who studies healthcare delivery for marginalized populations.
She also provides consulting services in the community to increase access to other services including electrolysis for gender-affirming surgeries.
Natalie is a member of the following professional organizations: World Professional Organization for Transgender Health and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
Natalie identifies as queer and neurodivergent. She is cisgender and her spouse Kate is a non-binary transgender person. Natalie and Kate live just outside of Vancouver, Washington, with their four cats. Natalie enjoys hiking, photography, meditation, and is an avid reader of audiobooks and scientific journals.
Natalie provides evidence-based healthcare services. She has been involved in evidence-based medicine research and other scientific research. Here are her peer-reviewed publications:
Bland, H. T., Gilmore, M. J., Andujar, J., Martin, M. A., Celaya-Cobbs, N., Edwards, C., Gerhart, M., Hooker, G. W., Kraft, S. A., Marshall, D. R., Orlando, L. A., Paul, N. A., Pratap, S., Rosenbloom, S. T., Wiesner, G. L., & Mittendorf, K. F. (2023). Conducting inclusive research in genetics for transgender, gender-diverse, and sex-diverse individuals: Case analyses and recommendations from a clinical genomics study. Journal of genetic counseling, 10.1002/jgc4.1785. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgc4.1785
Rhoten, B. A., Sellers, J., Charron, E., & Paul, N. (2022). Sexual activity after treatment for head and neck cancer: the experience of survivors. Cancer Nursing Practice, 21(5). doi:10.7748/cnp.2019.e1461
Jaeger, C. B., Hymel, A. M., Levin, D. T., Biswas, G., Paul, N., & Kinnebrew, J. (2019). The interrelationship between concepts about agency and students' use of teachable-agent learning technology. Cognitive research: principles and implications, 4(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-019-0163-6
Rhoten, B., & Paul, N. (2015). Sex and head and neck cancer: the lived experience of survivors. In PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY (Vol. 24, pp. 57-58). 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA: WILEY-BLACKWELL.
Paul, N. A., Stanton, S. J., Greeson, J. M., Smoski, M. J., & Wang, L. (2013). Psychological and neural mechanisms of trait mindfulness in reducing depression vulnerability. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 8(1), 56–64. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss070
Wang, L., Paul, N., Stanton, S. J., Greeson, J. M., & Smoski, M. J. (2013). Loss of sustained activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in response to repeated stress in individuals with early-life emotional abuse: implications for depression vulnerability. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 320. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00320
Levin, D. T., Harriott, C., Paul, N. A., Zhang, T., & Adams, J. A. (2013). Cognitive dissonance as a measure of reactions to human-robot interaction. Journal of Human-Robot Interaction, 2(3), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.5898/JHRI.2.3.Levin