Meghan Romanelli
University of Washington, WA·Psychology·Early-career
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexual and gender minority (SGM) people face more mental health problems than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Yet many do not get the care they need.
- Fields
Psychology
Public Health & Epidemiology
Social Science
- Topics
digital mental health
sexual and gender minority
mental health services
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Characterize current and predicted patterns of engagement with Mental Health America's digital mental health resources among sexual and gender minority users, and the user traits linked to them, using supervised machine learning.
- Use human-centered design with SGM users to uncover engagement factors missing from platform usage data and build prototype tailored engagement strategies.
- Test the tailored engagement strategies with Mental Health America's SGM users in a micro-randomized trial, which repeatedly randomizes prompts to each user over time.
More about the research
Digital mental health (DMH) tools, such as online screenings and self-guided resources, can reach people who face barriers to traditional care, and many SGM users prefer them. However, little DMH content is tailored to SGM users. There is also little research on how these users actually engage with such tools.
Why it matters
Sexual and gender minority people often have unmet mental health needs. Tailored strategies that keep them engaged with free digital mental health tools could improve their access to care. Because the work builds on Mental Health America's existing platform, effective strategies could be adopted with little extra burden on users. This could help narrow mental health gaps for SGM populations.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sabrina Boyce
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Estimate the causal effect of state anti-SGM and SGM-affirming laws adopted from 2021 to 2025 on sexual and intimate partner violence among SGM youth, using difference-in-differences analysis of Youth Risk Behavior Survey data.
B R Simon Rosser
University of Minnesota, MN·Public Health & Epidemiology
Analyze the policies of 362 nursing homes and 362 assisted living facilities in Minnesota, covering hiring, training, anti-discrimination and data collection, to see how many already support culturally responsive care for sexual and gender minority residents.
Andrea Graham
Northwestern University, IL·Psychology
Identify which of five evidence-based treatment targets in the FoodSteps mobile program reduce binge eating for which adults with obesity, by randomly delivering one target to each user every week in a 16-week micro-randomized trial.
The school
University of Washington: 81 labs on PI Pages, $1.7B a year on research, 694 research doctorates a year.
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