Eduardo Romano, PhD, Latino Issues, Applied Economics, Epidemiology, Traffic Safety
Senior Research Scientist I
The Calverton Center
Calverton, Maryland

Phone: (301) 755-2724
Fax: (301) 755-2799
Email: romano@pire.org


Dr. Romano is a Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. He has been a Research Scientist at Pacific Institute for 14 years. An economist by training, Dr. Romano's research interests have focused on risk-related behaviors as well as on the analyses of risk-reducing and risk-managing policies. Before joining PIRE, Dr. Romano's research focused on environmental risk, in particular the management of risk posed by the involuntary introduction of exotic pests into the country. After joining PIRE, Dr. Romano collaborated with Dr. Ted Miller in the elaboration of models to estimate the incidence and cost of intentional and unintentional injuries. He also collaborated with Dr. David Levy in the development of a simulation program ("Symsmoke") modeling the impact of a variety of risk-reducing policies on smoking-related diseases. His interest in injuries and risk-related policies motivated Dr. Romano to join Dr. Voas' traffic safety research team. It is under the mentorship of Dr. Voas that Dr. Romano's career began to concentrate on the risks associated with impaired driving. Dr. Romano's specific areas of research focused on the traffic-related risks faced by specific population groups: minorities, women, and the youth. His interest on the evaluation of racial/ethnic and cultural determinants of motor vehicle crashes induced Dr. Romano to examine Californian and Mexican policies aimed to deter binge drinking by young American visitors in Tijuana, Mexico. He served on the Advisory Committee for the Latino Traffic Safety Project (University of California at Berkeley). His interest in Latinos' issues has involved the evaluation of community-based, NHTSA-funded programs such as a Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco intervention program against drinking and driving in San Antonio (TX), Durham (NC), and Las Cruces (NM). As a PI, Dr. Romano has been funded by NHTSA to analyze state-based traffic citation data to study the prevalence of seat belt non-use and impaired driving among recent immigrants; as well as to evaluate a program to promote seat belt use among recent Latino immigrants to Los Angeles and Miami. He has been awarded grants by the NIH to investigate the role of race/ethnicity on alcohol-related fatal crashes (funded by NIAAA); as well as the changing role of female drivers in the US (funded by NICHD). He is also a co-PI in another NIAAA-funded study of the role of acculturation on drinking norms among young Californians (Dr. Mark Johnson, PI). Dr. Romano has also been involved in the analysis of the 2007 National Roadside Survey (Lacey, PI), the design and analysis of the 2011-2012 Drug Crash Risk study (Lacey, PI), and is currently involved in the preparations for the 2013 NRS (Lacey, PI). As a PI, Dr. Romano is currently working on two NIAAA-funded studies, one to study the role that passengers play in shaping the vulnerability of drivers to impaired driving; another to quantify the risk that alcohol imposes to drinking drivers. With Jim Fell, Dr. Romano has published on the impact of the Graduate Driving License laws on reducing crashes among teenagers. With Dr. Kelley-Baker, Dr. Romano is currently researching the effectiveness of child endangerment laws to promote safety among children riding with drinking adults. Recently, he has been doing research and publishing on the role that drugs other than alcohol play in shaping crash risk. His current research interests also have induced Dr. Romano to pursue the development of the following projects: a quantification of the interaction between drowsiness and alcohol as co-determinants of crash risk; disparities in the effectiveness of GDL policies across teenagers of different racial/ethnic group; risk perceptions and impaired driving among recent Latino immigrants (a collaboration with Dr. de la Rosa, from Florida International University); the analyses of developmental trajectories towards drinking and driving outcomes (a collaboration with Dr. Zucker, University of Michigan); as well as the role that vehicle access may have as a conduit to non-traffic related risky outcomes (also a collaboration with Dr. Zucker). Dr. Romano is also a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals, as well as a standing reviewer member for the AA2 grpoup (NIAAA); a member of the Research Society on Alcoholism; the National Hispanic Science Network; the TRB Committee on Women's Issues in Transportation (ABE70) as well as the scientific committee of the 5th conference on women's issues in transportation (Paris, 2014).