Rebecca Trenz

Dr. Trenz joined the faculty at Mercy College in the Fall of 2011. Dr. Trenz teaches a mix of undergraduate, graduate, and online courses at the College. Prior to joining Mercy College, Dr. Trenz completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Drug Dependence and Epidemiology. Dr. Trenz's research interests include substance use and HIV risk behaviors among vulnerable populations. At Mercy, Dr. Trenz leads a psychology research lab with both undergraduate and graduate students interested in gaining hands-on research experience. This research lab is currently working on a project entitled, "Expressive Writing Intervention for Alcohol Use and Risk Behavior." Dr. Trenz's students have presented their work at local conferences such as the Westchester Undergraduate Research Conference that is co-sponsored by Mercy College. In addition to her work with undergraduate students on research, Dr. Trenz is currently a Research Fellow in the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Research and Capacity Building for Minority Entities with Langston University. Dr. Trenz enjoys collaborating with colleagues from a variety of institutions and across disciplines.

Refereed Publications

Dondorf-Brooks, K, Seyura, F., Stanton-Koko, M. & Trenz, R. C. (in Press). Parenting with a disability: A descriptive analysis of socioeconomically disadvantaged women in vocational rehabilitation. Accepted in Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling.

Harrell, P., Mancha, B., Petras, H., Trenz, R., & Latimer, W. (2012). Latent classes of heroin and cocaine users predict unique HIV/HCV risk factors. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 122, 220-227. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2011.10.001 

Harrell, P. T., Trenz, R. C., Scherer, M., Martins, S. S., & Latimer, W. W. (2013). Classes discovered via latent class analysis using a separate measure conform to stages of change model. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 45, 249-256.

Harrell, P., Trenz, R., Scherer, M., Ropelweski, L., & Latimer, W. (2012). Cigarette smoking, illicit drug use, and routes of administration among cocaine and heroin users. Addictive Behaviors, 37, 678-681.

Scherer, M., Harrell, P., Trenz, R., Canham, S., & Latimer, W. (2015). An exploration of alcohol use severity

and route of drug administration among persons that use heroin and cocaine. Substance Abuse, online ahead of press. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2015.1080207.

Scherer, M., Trenz, R., Harrell, P., Altintoprak A. E., Mancha, B., & Latimer, W. (2013). Desistence from problematic alcohol use without treatment among active heroin and cocaine users. Addiction Research & Theory, 21 (3), 227-234.

Scherer, M., Trenz, R.C., Harrell, P.T., Mancha, B., Altintoprak, E., & Latimer, W.W. (2013). Heroin and cocaine use among individuals with a history of problematic alcohol consumption. Addiction Research and Theory, 21, 227-234. doi:10.3109/16066359.2012.705400

Scherer, M., Trenz, R., Harrell, P., Mauro, P., Latimer, W. (2013). The role of drinking severity on sex risk behavior and HIV exposure among illicit drug users. The American Journal on Addictions, 22, 239-245.

Trenz, R. C. (2012). The effects of strategy use in practice on performance of a psychomotor skill in non-elite competitive youth swimmers. Applied Recreation Research & Programming Annual, 2, 32-48.

Trenz, R. C., Dunne, E., Zur, J., & Latimer, W. (2015). An investigation of school-related variables as risk and protective factors associated with problematic substance use among at-risk urban adolescents. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies: An International Interdisciplinary Journal for Research, Policy and Care, 10, 131-140. DOI: 10.1080/17450128.2015.1029034

Trenz, R. C., Ecklund-Flores, L., & Rapoza, K. (2015). A comparison of mental health and alcohol use differences between traditional and nontraditional students. Journal of American College Health, 63, 584-588. DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2015.1040409

Trenz, R. C., Harrell, P., Scherer, M., Mancha, B., & Latimer, W. (2012). A model of school problems, academic failure, alcohol initiation, and the relationship to adult heroin injection. Substance Use and Misuse, 47, 1159-1171.

Trenz, R. C., Penniman, T. V., Scherer, M., Zur, J., Rose, J., & Latimer, W. (2012). An investigation of problem recognition, intention to stop use, and treatment utilization among regular heroin injectors. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 43, 204-210.

Trenz, R. C., Pacek, L., Scherer, M., Harrell, P., Zur, J., & Latimer, W. (2012). Prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), risk behavior, and recent substance use in a sample of urban drug users: Findings by race and sex. World Journal of AIDS, 2, 183-193.

Trenz, R. C., Scherer, M., Duncan, A., Harrell, P., Moleko, A.G., & Latimer, W. (2013). Latent classes of substance use among South African drug users predict risk behaviors and infectious disease. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 132, 441-448.

Trenz, R. C., Scherer, M., Harrell, P., Zur, J., Sinha, A., & Latimer, W. (2012). Early onset of drug and polysubstance use as predictors of injection drug use among adult drug users. Addictive Behaviors, 37, 367-372. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2011.11.011 

Trenz, R. C., Scherer, M., Whitehead, N., & Latimer, W. (2016). Differences in alcohol use and sex risk behavior among female drug users. Substance Use & Misuse, 51, 1716-1723.

Trenz, R. C. & Zusho, A. (2011). Competitive swimmers’ perception of motivational climate and their personal achievement goals. International Journal of Sport Science & Coaching, 6, 433-443.  

Whitehead, N. E., Hearn, L., Marsiske, M., Trenz, R. C., & Latimer, W. W. (2014). Age cohort differences in illicit drug use and HCV among African American substance users. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 33, 314-321.

Whitehead, N. E., Trenz, R. C., Keen, L., Rose, J., & Latimer, W. W. (2014). Younger versus older African Americans: Patterns and prevalence of recent illicit drug use. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Use, 13, 126-138.