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Roma Hanks, Ph.D

Roma Hanks, Ph.D

Professor and Department Chair, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work
Research Director, Center for Generational Studies (CGS) University of South Alabama (USA)

Research Focus and Expertise

Dr. Hanks’ research career is focused on applied sociological methods, intergenerational relationships in families and communities, and the implementation and dissemination of community-based research. Her most recent work employs community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods to understand health and environmental disparities across the life course.

Her record of successful project completion and publications demonstrates expertise in community engagement, program evaluation, qualitative analysis, and the dissemination of applied sociological and public health research.

Center for Generational Studies (CGS)

As Research Director of the Center for Generational Studies (CGS) at the University of South Alabama (USA), Dr. Hanks oversees a research center founded in 2011 to conduct research and create solutions for individuals and families across the life span.

Current Interdisciplinary Projects

Dr. Hanks enjoys interdisciplinary collaborations and is currently working on major projects with the University of Alabama, the USA Colleges of Engineering and Education, and the USA Health – Center for Healthy Communities.

Current projects include:

  • NSF-funded project to build infrastructure in Edge-AI focused on healthcare applications.
  • CDC-funded project with the Mobile County Health Department (MCHD) and USA Health to implement a Community Health Worker program in communities with high health disparities.
  • EPA, Region IV-funded Gulf Coast Environmental Equity Center (Shenghua Wu, Principal Investigator).
  • CDC-funded project (recently concluded) with the MCHD to explore barriers to using WIC benefits.

Prior Grant-Funded Research Leadership

Dr. Hanks has a strong history of securing and leading large-scale grant-funded research initiatives:

  • NIH/NIMHD-funded (P20) Center of Excellence on Health Disparities (now Center for Healthy Communities): Served as Director of the Community Engagement Core.
  • NIH-U54 Sub-award PI: Focused on barriers to effective public health services during disasters that affected multiple communities in the region (through an award to the Bayou Clinic, UAB, and USM).
  • National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Sub-award PI: Explored disaster preparation, response, recovery, and emergency management in Cambodian and Laotian communities in Bayou la Batre, AL.
  • Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP): Co-PI (with Dr. Nicole Carr) to evaluate programs for adjudicated youth, which also supported grounded theory analysis of narratives of women in the Mobile County jail.
  • Community Health Initiative PI: Funded by the Community Foundation of South Alabama.
  • Early Retirement Project Director (University of Delaware): A 3-year project funded by the USDHHS-Administration on Aging that supported her dissertation research. (The resulting dissertation won the Best Dissertation Award for the Section on Aging and the Life Course, American Sociological Association.)

Selected Publications

  • Min, H., Hanks, R., Lewis, D., & Lio, S. (2023). Psychological impact of anti-Asian violence on Asian Americans under COVID-19 in rural South Alabama. Migration Letters, 20(2), 235-244.
  • Bagley, B. H., Forbes Bright, C., Sayre, E., Hanks, R., & Wraight, S. (2022). Uncertainty and disaster recovery: an analysis of victim perceptions utilizing the problematic integration theory. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 1-12.
  • Crook, E. D., Crook, C. E., Arrieta, M. I., & Hanks, R. S. (2020). Health disparities and their impact on community health. In Sustainable Community Health: Systems and Practices in Diverse Settings, 39-70.
  • Bright, C.F., Hanks, R., Sayre, E., Broyles, A. and Bagley, B. (2019). If the Lord Is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise: Religious Attendance and Disaster Recovery in the Deep South*. Social Science Quarterly, 100: 76-88.
  • Hanks, R.S., Myles, H., Wraight, S., Patterson, C., Hodnett, B.M., Broadnax, A., Shelley-Tremblay, S., & Crook, E. (2018). A multi-generational strategy to transform health education into community action. Progress in community health partnerships: Research, education, and action, 12(1 Suppl), 121.
  • Carr, N.T., & Hanks, R.S. (2013). “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for men” One woman’s deployment of femininities and her pathway to crime. Sociological Spectrum, 33(5), 433-452.
  • Carr, Nicole T., & Hanks, Roma Stovall (2012). If “60 is the New 40,” is 35 the New 15? Late onset crime and delinquency. Deviant Behavior, 33 (5), 393-411.
  • Hanks, R. S. (2001). Grandma, What big teeth you have! The social construction of grandparenting by American business and academe. Journal of Family Issues, 22(5), 652-676.