MHDI Visiting Speaker Russell Toomey: Where Two Silos Collide: Health and Development of Latinx Sexual Minority Youth
Assistant Professor, Chair, Youth Development and Resilience Initiative
Dr. Russell Toomey is an Assistant Professor of Family Studies and Human Development at the University of Arizona. Dr. Toomey received his Ph.D. in Family Studies and Human Development from the University of Arizona, completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Arizona State University in the Prevention Research Center and the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, and served on the faculty at Kent State University. Dr. Toomey’s research identifies malleable contextual (e.g., family, school) and individual-level (e.g., identity processes) factors that contribute to and mitigate health disparities experienced by marginalized adolescents in the United States. His research has examined these relationships with explicit attention to the minority-specific stressors of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination that contribute to the disparate rates of negative outcomes experienced by sexual and gender minority (SGM) and Latinx youth, and the culturally-relevant protective factors (e.g., ethnic-racial identity, Gay-Straight Alliances) that buffer these associations. Dr. Toomey’s current research integrates these two distinct – but conceptually similar - lines of research (i.e., SGM youth and Latinx youth), and focuses on how the amalgamation of individuals’ multiple marginalized identities contributes to their contextual experiences, health, and well-being. Dr. Toomey is Associate Editor for the Journal of Adolescent Research, and is a recipient of the Society for Research on Adolescence Young Investigator Award, a National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Award, and the University of Arizona Shirley O’Brien Diversity Award.
March 31, 2017, 10:30 am
UNL City Union: Heritage Room
1400 R St. Lincoln, NE 68588