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Ricky Hill is Promoted to Research Assistant Professor

November 3, 2020

Ricky Hill, Ph.D., has been promoted to Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine effective October 2020. Hill is a faculty member at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH), where they direct the 2GETHER Project, an HIV prevention and relationship education program for young male couples.

Hill received a doctorate in Health Communication from the University of New Mexico and is an expert in conducting and analyzing qualitative health research.

“I work within communities and use peoples’ stories and experiences to bolster research findings. I’m very pleased to know that ISGMH values and is willing to invest in qualitative as well as quantitative work with sexual and gender minority communities,” said Hill.

In addition to serving as director of 2GETHER, Hill also works closely with ISGMH’s FAB 400 study, which seeks to understand relationship dynamics and personal development among young LGBTQ people assigned female at birth (AFAB).

They are currently working on qualitative manuscript with the FAB400 team about the contexts, motivations and meanings of intimate partner violence in AFAB couples. Hill is interested in building and strengthening ISGMH’s clinical partnerships, including with Northwestern Medicine’s adult trans-affirming care clinic, the Gender Pathways Program, where Hill is currently involved in analyzing data from a recently completed needs assessment.

Hill originally joined ISGMH in 2016 as a staff member. Since then, Hill has benefitted from the “invaluable” mentorship of ISGMH faculty member Michael Newcomb, Ph.D. As they move into a faculty position, Hill looks forward to conducting more of their own research and expanding ISGMH’s work with LGBTQ communities.

“Joining the faculty opens up more opportunities for me to do my own research on trans and gender non-conforming folks,” said Hill. “While I’m currently doing some of that work, there is even more opportunity for that type of research to be led by somebody who is trans and gender non-conforming themselves.”