Roberta Goldman

• Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Roberta E. Goldman, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist specializing in the sub-discipline of medical anthropology, with particular expertise in qualitative methods of research. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese, and has done research in the Portuguese Azores Islands, Peru, Mexico and Alaska, as well as among Latino, Cape Verdean, Portuguese, African American, West Indian and non-Hispanic White groups in the US.  In addition to Masters and Doctoral degrees in anthropology, she holds a Master's Certificate in Latin American Studies.

She is Adjunct Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is also Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Director of the Scholarly Development Program in the family medicine residency, and has been Chair of the Assessment Committee for the Social and Community Contexts of Care section of the curriculum at Alpert Medical School.

Dr. Goldman has broad experience using qualitative methods of research, in developing strategies for conducting qualitative interview research in clinical and community settings, and for incorporating social contextual issues into intervention design.  She teaches the yearly course at HSPH, SHH288: Qualitative Research Methods for Public Health.

She has been PI or co-investigator on numerous federally-funded research grants.  Her research interests include issues relevant to health and illness in the contexts of urban poverty, immigration and adjusting to life in the US. Her research has included an ethnographic study among Cape Verdean health center patients in Pawtucket and Central Falls; cancer prevention among Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in Rhode Island; perceptions of cholesterol, CVD risk and COPD risk among patients in Rhode Island and Boston; the transition to increasing use of electronic health record technology in the primary care setting; cancer prevention among construction laborers, diverse employees of small businesses, and residents of subsidized housing; use of interactive online technology to study menopause and disease prevention at mid-life among Latinas in Rhode Island; medication safety among the elderly; physician-patient communication in second-opinion hematology-oncology consultations; social and cultural influences on perspectives of biospecimen donation for research; follow-up of abnormal mammogram results among Latinos and Haitians; the use of electronic health record alerts and automated voice-recognition software to enhance management of diabetes, pediatric obesity, laboratory monitoring, and management of hyperlipidemia and hypertension; sugary soft drink consumption among college freshman; and a study of social factors relating to substance use among Black and Latino youth in Providence, RI.

Ph.D., 1989, University of Florida
MA, 1983, University of Florida

Master's Certificate in Latin American Studies, 1983, University of Florida