Michelle Martin Romero
Bio & Education
PROFESSIONAL BIO
Michelle Y. Martin Romero, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Public Health Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She received her doctoral degree in Biobehavioral Health from The Pennsylvania State University in 2018. She completed postdoctoral training as an NIH T32 fellow with the Carolina Consortium on Human Development of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2018–2020). At the heart of Martin Romero’s research lies the objective to understand resilience and resistance processes as they relate to cardiometabolic health disparities in the context of racism and resulting racial-ethnic stress and trauma among racially-ethnically minoritized individuals, families, and communities in the U.S. Undergirding this objective is the goal to better support racially-ethnically minoritized communities as they navigate ever-present and complex systems of oppression that ultimately deteriorate health and quality of life.
- Ph.D. in Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University
- M.S. in Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University
- B.S. in Health Education, University of Florida
Research
- Obesity-related health behaviors and outcomes
- Racialized stress and trauma
- Racial-ethnic minoritized youth and families
- Poverty
- Youth voice and agency
- Qualitative methodologies
- Participatory, community-engaged research
CURRENT PROJECTS
I currently lead the Racial-Ethnic Stress & Trauma (REST) and Youth Health project. This multi-method project seeks to understand racial-ethnic minoritized youths’ (children, adolescents, and emerging adults) lived experiences in the context of direct and vicarious forms of racial discrimination/racism and the potential health behavior and health outcome implications shaped by the resulting racial-ethnic stress and trauma. The overall project’s research questions include: 1) How and in what ways are youth exposed to racism? and 2) How might such exposure shape (or disrupt) everyday health behaviors and routines, like food practices and sleep hygiene? Preliminary data collection is scheduled to begin in mid-late fall 2020.
I also collaborate with various research teams including 1) Shift-and-Persist project with Dr. Gabriela Livas Stein of UNCG Psychology, Psychology PhD student Keita Christophe, and the CAMINOS Lab to explore culturally-specific coping mechanisms in the face of poverty and racial discrimination; 2) Promoting Dialogues/One Talk at a Time co-led by Dr. Gabriela Livas Stein of UNCG Psychology, Dr. Laura Gonzalez of UNCG Education, Dr. Stephanie Irby Coard of UNCG HDFS, and Dr. Lisa Kiang of Psychology at Wake Forest University; I serve as a qualitative methodologist as the team explores racial socialization conversations and the related development and implementation of a video-based intervention for Black, Asian, Latinx, and White families, and 3) Longitudinal Analysis of Social Determinants of Health project team co-led by Dr. Jennifer Toller Erausquin of PHE, Dr. Tom McCoy of the UNCG School of Nursing, Dr. Robin Bartlett of the University of Alabama, Dr. Eunhee Park of the University at Buffalo, and PHE PhD student Rachel Faller where our work centers on understanding links between adverse childhood experiences and Latinx health in later life.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Martin Romero, M.Y., & Francis, L.A. (2020). Youth involvement in food preparation practices at home: A multi-method exploration of Latinx youth experiences and perspectives. Appetite.
Christophe, N.K., Stein, G.L., Martin Romero, M.Y., Chan, M., Jensen, M., Gonzalez, L.M., & Kiang, L. (2019). Coping and culture: The protective effects of shift-and-persist and ethnic-racial identity on depressive symptoms in Latinx youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
Martin Romero, M.Y., Jeitner, E.C., & Francis, L.A. (2019). Visualizing perceived enablers of and barriers to healthy eating by youth in rural El Salvador. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 51, 348-356.
Selected manuscripts under review
Martin Romero, M.Y., Francis, L.A., & Armendariz, M. (under review). Helping to feed the family: Food preparation as context for youth development and family well-being among low-income, im/migrant Latinx families.
Martin Romero, M.Y., Gonzalez, L., Stein, G.L., Alvarado, S., Kiang, L., & Coard, S. (under review). Coping (together) with hate: an exploration of strategies employed in response to racial-ethnic discrimination among Mexican American adolescents and parents.
Christophe, N. K., Stein, G.L., Martin Romero, M.Y., Patel, P.,& Sircar, J. (under review). Culturally-informed shift-&-persist: A higher-order factor model and prospective associations with discrimination and depressive symptoms.