University Directory

Michelle L. Ramirez, PhD, MPH

Professor

Michelle Ramirez PhD, MPH

Department

Office

PO 113

Phone

610-660-1686
Contact

Dr. Ramirez is a medical anthropologist who received her PhD from the University of Iowa, and her M.P.H. from Portland State University in Portland, O.R. She has conducted field work in many parts of Mexico and the U.S. and specializes in women’s health issues. Her research has examined sexuality, gender, cancer survivorship, Pentecostalism, and healing.

    • BA, San Francisco State
    • MA. University of Iowa
    • PhD, University of Iowa
    • MPH., Portland State University

  • Prior Positions

    • NRSA postdoctoral fellow, Oregon Health and Science University, 2003-2005
    • Senior research associate, Kaiser Center for Health Research, 2005-2006
    • Research assistant professor, Portland State University, 2006-2007

    • Ramirez, M and Everett, M. "Imagining Christian Sex: Reproductive Governance and Modern Marriage in Oaxaca, Mexico." American Anthropologist, 2018, 120 (4): 684-696.
    • Young, AJ and Ramirez, M. "I Would Teach It, But I Don’t Know How: Faculty Perceptions of Cultural Competency in the Health Sciences, a Case Study Analysis." Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 2017, 1(39): 90-103.
    • Janke, EA, Ramirez, M, Haltzman, B, Fritz, M BS, Kozak, AT. "Patient's Experience with Comorbidity Management: A Qualitative Study of Comorbid Pain and Obesity." Primary Health Care Research and Development, 2016, Jan 17 (1): 33-41.
    • Everett, M and Ramirez, M. "Healing the Curse of the Grosero Husband: Problem Drinking and Women’s Narratives of Pentecostal Conversion in Oaxaca, Mexico." Journal of Contemporary Religion, 2015, 30(3):415-433.
    • Ramirez, M, Altschuler A, McMullen C, Grant M, Hornbrook MC, Krouse R. "'I Didn’t Feel Like I was a Person Anymore’: Realigning Full Adult Personhood After Ostomy Surgery." Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 2014, Jun, 28(2):242-259.
    • Ramirez, M., Jessop, A., Leader, A., Crespo, C. "Acceptability of the HPV Vaccine Among Diverse Hispanic Mothers and Grandmothers." Hispanic Health Care International, 2014, 12(1): 24-33.
    • Waldron, EA, Janke, EA, Bechtel, CF, Ramirez, M, Cohen, A. "A Systematic Review of Psychosocial Interventions to Improve Cancer Caregiver QoL." Psycho-Oncology, 2013, June 22(6):1200-1207.
    • Vuckovic, NH, Williams, LA, Schneider, J, Ramirez, M, Gullion, CM. "Long-term Outcomes of a Shamanic Treatment for Temporomandibular Joint Disorders." The Permanente Journal, Spring, 2012 16(2): 28-35.
    • Vuckovic, NH, Schneider, J, Williams, LA, Ramirez, M. "Journey Into Healing: The Transformative Experience of Shamanic Healing on Women with Temporomandibular Joint Disorders." EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing, November 2010; 6(6): 371-379.
    • Ramirez M, McMullen C, Grant M, Altschuler A, Hornbrook MC, Krouse R. "Figuring Out Sex in a Reconfigured Body: Experiences of Female Colorectal Cancer Survivors with Ostomies." Women & Health, 2009, 49(8):608-624.
    • Altschuler A, Ramirez M, Grant M, Hornbrook M, Herrinton L, Krouse R. "The Influence of Husbands’ Support on their Wives’ Psychosocial Adjustment to Having an Ostomy Resulting from Colorectal Cancer." Journal of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing, May-June 2009; 36(3): 299-305.
    • McMullen, CK, Hornbrook, MC, Grant, M, Baldwin, CM, Wendel, SC, Mohler, MJ, Altschuler, Ramirez, M, Krouse, RS. "The Greatest Challenges Reported by Long-Term Colorectal Cancer Survivors with Stomas." Journal of Supportive Oncology, April 2008; 6(4):175-82.
    • Vuckovic, NH, Gullion, CM, Williams, LA, Ramirez, M, Schneider, J. "Feasibility and Short-term Outcomes of a Shamanic Treatment for Temporomandibular Joint Disorders." Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, November-December 2007; 13 (6): 18-29.
    • Ramirez M, Maty, S, McBride L. "Gender, Health and Prevention." Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Wellbeing. Cohen L, Chavez V, Chehimi S (Eds). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
    • Ramirez, M. "Manufacturing Heterosexuality: Hormone Replacement Therapy and Menopause, In Urban Oaxaca." Culture, Health and Sexuality, November-December 2006; 8 (6): 545-558.

  • Selected Research Awards

    • Present: Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Jack Shand Research Grant, “An Examination of Pentecostal Healing Among Immigrant and U.S. Born Latina Women”
    • 2012-2015: Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund, The Reed Foundation, “Pentecostal Conversion in Urban Oaxaca: An Examination of Healing, Gender, and Social Class in Latin America’s Protestant Expansion.”
    • 2005-2007: National Cancer Institute, Minority Supplement to Health Related Quality of Life in Colorectal Cancer Survivors with Stomas: “Women, Sexuality and Stomas”
    • 2001–2002: National Institute of Health/National Institute on Aging, Minority Dissertation Research Grant in Aging
    • 1999–2000: National Science Foundation, Dissertation Research Grant
    • Medical anthropology
    • Gender
    • Sexuality
    • Cancer
    • Complementary and alternative medicine
    • Mexico
    • U.S. Latinos
    • Pentecostalism