Johanna Olson-Kennedy

Johanna Olson-Kennedy is an American physician. She is board-certified in pediatrics and adolescent medicine and was the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles until its closure in July 2025.

Olson-Kennedy has co-authored multiple studies on transgender youth. She has served as a frequent expert witness in court cases, and as of 2024 is the president-elect of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH). She was implicated in a 2024 controversy for choosing to delay publishing a National Institutes of Health study on the use of puberty blockers to improve mental health of children.

Biography Olson-Kennedy is a physician that is board-certified in pediatrics and adolescent medicine. She who specializes in the care of children and teenagers with gender dysphoria and youth with HIV and chronic pain. She was the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles until its closure in July 2025 in response to Executive Order 14187 due to its reliance on public insurance.

Olson-Kennedy has co-authored multiple studies on transgender youth. These include studies on chest reconstruction, She is a critic of a "gatekeeping" approach to youth gender medicine, according to The Economist.

In 2012, Olson-Kennedy became the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, the largest transgender youth clinic in the United States as of 2024. As summarized by The New York Times, other researchers involved in the study, including Amy Tishelman, were "alarmed by the idea of delaying results that would have immediate implications for families around the world." However, other studies from the larger NIH project have been published, including one that found "improvements in life and body satisfaction" in transgender and nonbinary adolescents who took estrogen or testosterone as well as "declines in depression and anxiety." The lawsuit also names the St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco and a second doctor as defendants, alleging that the latter had "rubber-stamped" the mastectomy. All senators involved except for one had previously sponsored a ban on youth gender-affirming care. This letter follows an earlier November 4 letter from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to the director whose focal point was again the unpublished study by Johanna Olson-Kennedy.