Principal Investigator
Ulrike Boehmer, PhD
Ulrike Boehmer is an Assistant Professor in the Social & Behavioral Sciences Department at Boston University School of Public Health. She also holds an appointment as a Research, Health Scientist, at the Center for Health Quality, Outcomes and Economic Research at the Bedford, Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bedford Massachusetts.
Dr. Boehmer received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston College and graduate degrees in Political Science and History from Germany. Her research focuses on exploring the social and cultural aspects of health and illness. For the past several years, she investigated differences in quality of life and health-related decision-making in the context of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.
Some of her previous research has focused on treatment decision-making in prostate cancer as well as on complementary alternative medicine use among HIV/AIDS patients. Her research focus on health disparities has been pursued through studies of sexual minority women, particularly breast cancer survivors.
Selected Publications
Ulrike Boehmer, Deborah J. Bowen (in press). “Staying Healthy- Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.” In HJ Makadon, K Mayer, and J Potter (Eds.) The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health, Philadelphia: American College of Physicians
Deborah J Bowen, Ulrike Boehmer. The lack of cancer surveillance data on sexual minorities and strategies for change. Cancer Causes Control. 2007 May;18(4):343-9.
Ulrike Boehmer, Deborah J. Bowen, Greta R. Bauer (2007), “Overweight and obesity in sexual minority women: evidence from population-based data.” American Journal of Public Health, 97(6): 1134-1140
Ulrike Boehmer, Rhonda Linde and Karen M. Freund (2007), “Breast Reconstruction following Mastectomy for Breast Cancer: The Decisions of Sexual Minority Women.” Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 119(2): 464-472.
Ulrike Boehmer and Patricia Case (2006), “Sexual minority women’s interactions with breast cancer providers.” Women & Health, 44(2): 41-58.
Deborah J. Bowen, Ulrike Boehmer, Marla Russo (2006), Cancer and Sexual Minority Women. In: Meyer I H, Northridge M E (eds). The Health of Sexual Minorities: Public Health Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Populations, pp. 523-538, New York: Springer.
Ulrike Boehmer, Karen M Freund, Rhonda Linde (2005), “Support providers of sexual minority women with breast cancer: who they are and how they impact the breast cancer experience.” Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 59(5):307-314.
Ulrike Boehmer, Rhonda Linde, Karen M Freund (2005), “Sexual minority women’s coping and psychological adjustment after a diagnosis of breast cancer.” Journal of Women’s Health, 14(3):214-224.
Ulrike Boehmer, Patricia Case (2004), “Physicians don’t ask, sometimes patients tell: Disclosure of sexual orientation among women with breast cancer.” Cancer, 101 (8): 1882-1889.
Ulrike Boehmer (2002). “Twenty Years of Public Health Research: The Inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations” American Journal of Public Health 92 (7), 1125-1130.
Bei-Hung Chang, Katherine Skinner, Ulrike Boehmer (2001). “Religion and mental health among women veterans with sexual assault experience.” International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine 31 (1), 95-113.
Ulrike Boehmer (2000). The Personal and the Political: Women’s Activism in Response to the Breast Cancer and AIDS Epidemics. Albany, NY: SUNY.
