María Idalí Torres, Ph.D.
Asssociate Professor
Telephone: 413-545-1347
Email: mitorres@schoolph.umass.edu
Campus Address: 307 Arnold House
Dr. María Idalí Torres is an Associate Professor of Public Health. She is an applied anthropologist with a specialty in community health education, community participatory action research and qualitative methodologies. Her education includes a BA in Health Education from the University of Puerto Rico, a MS in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut. She joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts in 1992, with 17 years of experience in planning, implementing and evaluating health programs in schools and community settings. Her most recent research is focused on sexual health promotion work and has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her scholarship promotes community capacity, combines transdiciplinary orientations and uses participatory research methodologies and partnerships with community residents and organizations. Recent publications focused on sexual health education include a book Sexual and Reproductive Health Promotion in Latino Populations (2003; Baywood Publishing), and several articles "Cultural Landscapes and Cultural Brokers of Sexual and Reproductive Health in US Latino and Latin American Populations" in the International Quarterly of Community Health Education (21(2):109-132; 2002-2003) and "Cultural Dynamics in Sexual and Reproductive Health Programs for Latinos" in Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal (22(3):299-304;2004). Professor Torres has served as consultant on health projects involving women and children at the local, state and national and is an active member of the Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Public Health Association.
Research interests include sexual health education, cultural explanatory models of health, participatory health education and intervention research in Puerto Rican communities, community organizing and health development, and Latina women's health.
