Meghan Romanelli
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
University of Washington
Tel: 206-685-6948 Box: 355852
CSDE Research Areas:
- Health of People and Populations
In the News:
- Romanelli Honored at 27th Annual SSWR Conference (02/03/2023)
- New Article Published by Affiliate Romanelli and Colleagues (09/21/2021)
Meghan Romanelli is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at University of Washington. Romanelli’s research program primarily aims to understand and address the multisystemic factors that lead to mental health disparities among LGTBQ communities, with a focus on the role of service access and treatment engagement. Her current research describes LGBTQ care-seekers’ experiences with healthcare discrimination and barriers to care, examines how depression and suicide disparities among sexual and gender minorities occur through the mechanism of forgone care or restricted engagement in care, and identifies unique community factors that might improve service acceptability (e.g., what are LGBTQ communities already doing to stay healthy and how can we incorporate these strengths into formal services?). The long-term goal of this program of research is to develop a theoretically grounded and tailored engagement intervention that will promote the wellbeing of LGBTQ communities through improved mental health service access. As a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with over ten years of experience across various therapeutic settings and modalities, Romanelli considers herself a practice-informed researcher and instructor. As a means to make real-world impact, she integrates her direct practice knowledge, skills, and experiences into both her teaching and research program. Before joining the UW School of Social Work faculty, Romanelli received training as a pre- and postdoctoral research fellow at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research. Romanelli earned her PhD from the New York University Silver School of Social Work in 2019. She holds a master’s of science in social work from Columbia University and a BA in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross.