The College Fix

Transgender professor keeps pulling in taxpayer money to create an app to help people like him

A University of Cincinnati professor has more money from the National Institutes of Health to create a transgender voice training app.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders granted Professor Domen “Vesna” Novak $214,998 dollars for fiscal year 2025 to improve “the accessibility of transgender voice training with visual-acoustic feedback.”

The engineering professor (pictured) previously received $213,878 in taxpayer funds for the same project, as reported by The College Fix.

The project aims to develop a “smartphone- or computer-based software that delivers information about voice, suggests exercises, and provides feedback on exercise performance” to help transgender individuals sound like the sex they are presenting themselves as.

In other words, it would help a male who declares himself female to have a more feminine voice. Novak himself is transgender, previously going by the name “Domen.”

Novak, and New York University co-researcher Tara McAllister have not responded to multiple requests for comment on the study and its accomplishments so far. There have been two academic papers published on the research so far, according to the grant page.

The Fix also asked how they respond to critics who might argue that taxpayer dollars shouldn’t fund gender identity research.

The NIH awarded the grant in Nov. 2024, but since then the Trump administration has sought to freeze or claw back research funding that focuses on LGBT issues, DEI, or has other ideological aims.

Neither responded to inquiries sent in the past several weeks.

The Fix also attempted to reach Novak through Professor Marc Cahay, the chair of the electrical engineering and computer science department. However, Cahay was not able to get a response from Novakin the past few weeks.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders spokeswoman Joanne Karimbakas did not respond to an emailed request in the past month for comment on the grant and if similar grants would be reviewed for compliance with the Trump administration’s priorities.

BREAKING – Our new @DOGE report found that the Biden Admin spent more than $174 million tax dollars towards promoting gender ideology and trans indoctrination. pic.twitter.com/AaVSBhjPTK

— Terry Schilling (@Schilling1776) February 6, 2025

However, a conservative group who fights against LGBT ideology and has previously criticized the NIH for becoming politicized, criticized ideological research in comments provided to The Fix.

The American Principles Project referred The Fix to past research, including a video by the pro-family group “highlighting some of the most egregious examples” of other funding for LGBT related research.

The video, posted on X, showed a clip of White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who stated that the “Biden Administration spent over $174 million tax dollars promoting gender ideology and trans indoctrination,” much of which was sent to other countries.

APP President Terry Schilling stated in the video that he and his team put together a database, finding that “over $174 million in tax dollars was being used in grants and contracts that promoted woke gender ideology” which has preyed on “thousands of children” and “vulnerable adults” internationally. The Fix previously covered the database.

“When Americans pay their taxes every year, they expect that money to go towards projects that help them: strengthening our national defense, building and upgrading infrastructure, protecting our natural resources, etc,” Schilling stated. “However, in recent years, Democrats have been using public funds to instead push their radical gender agenda here at home and around the world.”

The NIH has awarded nearly $3 million in transgender studies just since Trump took office, as Fix original report found.

MORE: UC Riverside receives $500K to ‘diversify’ engineering faculty

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: University of Cincinnati Professor Domen ‘Vesna Novak; Albuquerque IEEE WIE Affinity Group ABQ NM/YouTube

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