Academic Appointments

Assistant Professor, Health and Nutrition Sciences at Brooklyn College

Degree(s)

DrPH, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy – 2018 (Community, Society and Health)
MPH, CUNY School of Public Health – 2006 (Public Health Nutrition)
BA, Hunter College – 2000 (French Language and Literature)
BS, Ankerhus Seminarium – 1988 (Nutrition)

Research Focus

My focus as a public health nutrition professional is to promote health and address intra-ethnic health disparities among immigrants and US-born populations. My mixed-methods research examining intra-ethnic risk profile research in New York City, compares risk factors, health behaviors, and disease profiles of African Americans, African-born Blacks, and Afro-Caribbeans. During my postdoc at the NIH, I studied cardiometabolic risk profiles and diabetes prediction algorithms among African-born Blacks. I am well versed in nutritional epidemiology and dietary acculturation, specifically among Afro-Caribbeans and Africans living in New York City.
I am dedicated to mentoring the next generation of nutrition and epidemiology researchers and engaging students directly in my research activities including community assessments, shoe-leather neighborhood mapping, electronic health records analysis, and qualitative interviews.

Selected Publications

1.Smith, E.*, Apfelbaum, L.*, Yeh, M-C., Horlyck-Romanovsky, MF. Staff Resilience and Innovation Essential to New York City Diabetes Prevention Programs Going Virtual During COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns. BMC Health Services Research. (Accepted) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-10129-y

2. Yeh, MC., Lau, W., Keady, CA., Horlyck-Romanovsky, M., Tung, H-J., Hu, L., Ma, GX., and Wylie-Rosett, J. Evaluation of Feasibility and Acceptability of a Web-based Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) for Diabetes Risk Reduction in Chinese Americans in New York City. Frontiers in Public Health, Digital Public Health. (Accepted) https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1199746

3. Duhuze Karera MG, Wentzel A, Ishimwe MCS, Gatete JD, Jagannathan R, Horlyck-Romanovsky MF, Sumner AE. A Scoping Review of Trials Designed to Achieve Remission of Type 2 Diabetes with Lifestyle Intervention Alone: Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa. Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2023 Mar 9;16:677-692. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S403054. PMID: 36923683; PMCID: PMC10010137. https://doi.org/10.2147/DMSO.S403054

4. Yeh, M.-C.; Lau, W.; Gong, Z.; Horlyck-Romanovsky, M.; Tung, H.-J.; Zhu, L.; Ma, G.X.; Wylie-Rosett, J. Development of a Web-Based Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) for Chinese Americans: A Formative Evaluation Approach. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 599. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010599. Impact Factor 4.536

5. Attar T, Oyekoya O, Horlyck-Romanovsky M. Using Virtual Reality Food Environments to Study Individual Food Consumer Behavior in an Urban Food Environment. 28th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST ’22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 80, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3562939.3565685.

Wentzel A, Patterson AC, Duhuze Karera MG, Waldman ZC, Schenk BR, DuBose CW, Sumner AE, Horlyck-Romanovsky MF. Non-invasive type 2 diabetes risk scores do not identify diabetes when the cause is β-cell failure: The Africans in America study. Front Public Health. 2022 Sep 23;10:941086. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.941086. PMID: 36211668; PMCID: PMC9537602. Impact Factor: 6.46

Wentzel A, Duhuze Karera MG, Patterson AC, Waldman ZC, Schenk BR, Mabundo LS, DuBose CW, Horlyck-Romanovsky MF, Sumner AE. The Africans in America study demonstrates that subclinical cardiovascular risk differs by etiology of abnormal glucose tolerance. Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 10;12(1):16947. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-19917-8. PMID: 36216842. Impact Factor: 4.996

Horlyck-Romanovsky MF, Farag M, Bhat S, Khosla L, McNeel TS, Williams F. Black New Yorkers with Type 2 Diabetes: Afro-Caribbean Immigrants Have Lower BMI and Lower Waist Circumference than African Americans. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2022 Aug 1. doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01375-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35913542.

Waldman, Z., Schenk, B., Duhuze-Karera, M.G., Patterson, A., Hormenu, T., Mabundo, L., Dubose, C.W., Whitesell, P. L., Wentzel, A., Horlyck-Romanovsky, M.F. Sumner, A.E. Sleep and Economic Status are Linked to Daily Life Stress in African-born Blacks living in America. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 2562. Special Topics Issue: The Health of African Migrants: The Burden, Determinants, and Solutions. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052562

Patents

None

Grants over the past 5 years

Agency: NIMHD, NIH
Period: 8/1/2023-8/1/2026
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: NYC Ghanaian Immigrant Mental Wellbeing Project 
$1,115,353

Agency: PSC-CUNY
Period: 7/1/2023—6/1/2024
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: PSC-CUNY Research Awards (Enhanced 54)
$12,000

Agency: Brooklyn College, CUNY
Period: 1/1/2023-1/1/2024
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Tow Student Faculty Mentoring Fellowship
$1,000

Agency: Brooklyn College, CUNY
Period: 1/1/2023-1/1/2024
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Tow Research and Creativity Grant
$3,000

Agency: PSC-CUNY Cycle 53
Period: 07/01/22-06/30/2023
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Diet, Acculturation, Food Security, and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Among African Immigrants Living in New York City
$3,462.50

Agency: CUNY Interdisciplinary Research Grant
Period: 2/4/2022-02/03/2023
Role: Principal Investigator
Title: Preventing Type 2 Diabetes in Black Communities: Adapting the PreventT2 Diabetes Prevention Program to the Black Caribbean Community in NYC
$40,000