Roma Subramanian, Ph.D.

Roma Subramanian, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Community and Global Health at Lehigh University. Her research program focuses on health communication, particularly understanding and improving the health and well-being of individuals affected by stigmatized health issues such as mental illness, substance use, and sexual violence. Recognizing stigma as a fundamental cause of population health inequalities, she investigates how stigmatizing messages are perpetuated by media; how they affect individuals' thoughts, emotions, and behaviors; and how health campaigns can be strategically designed to reduce stigma. She employs a range of social scientific research methods to address these questions.

Dr. Subramanian’s recent research examines how healthcare professionals and individuals with substance use disorder in a rural community in the United States perpetuate and challenge stigma through everyday communication. It also explores how the visual and creative languages of graphic medicine and photography can be harnessed to design public health campaigns that reduce mental illness stigma. Additional research interests include the dynamics of patient-physician communication, the impact of social and mobile media on health, and the role of the arts in addressing burnout.

Dr. Subramanian’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Health Communication, Health Education & Behavior, the Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, and Critical Public Health.

More information:
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Education

Ph.D. in Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
M.S. in Science and Technology Journalism, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
M.Sc. in Life Sciences, St. Xavier’s College, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India

Areas of Research and Publications

Health stigma
Health journalism
Social media & health
Healthcare provider-patient communication
Graphic medicine
Music and medicine

Courses