Biography
Dr. Bigatti graduated from the Joint Program in Clinical Psychology between University of California San Diego and San Diego State University. Her degree is in Clinical Psychology with a Behavioral Medicine specialization. She completed her clinical internship at Yale University School of Medicine. Since obtaining her degree, Dr. Bigatti has been an academician and researcher, with over 60 publications and well over 150 research presentations at local, national, and international scientific conferences. She has received both internal and external funding for her research endeavors.
Research Interests
Dr. Bigatti is a psychological stress researcher. She examines the distinct psychological stress experienced by different populations and its negative physical and mental health outcomes. Over the years she's completed exploratory and experimental research examining a variety of stressors, including among college students, in chronically ill patients, and in work settings. In her current work she examines the stress of social determinants of health resulting in health disparities, and their effect on the health of patients. She uses a Community Based Participatory Research framework.
To expand research to underserved populations, Dr. Bigatti co-founded the Latinx Community University Research Coalition of Indiana. The mission of the coalition is to connect university researchers with community organizations to address equity and well-being for Latinos across the state of Indiana, through community-engaged research efforts.
Courses Taught
PBHL-S 617: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
PBHL-S 619: Health Disparities Health Equity
PBHL-S 640: Culture and Health
PBHL-S 620: Stress and Population Health
Current Projects
Dr. Bigatti's ongoing projects focus on two populations: Latino youth mental health and Black women with breast cancer. For the past 12 years, she has co-directed Your Life, Your Story. Latino Youth Summit, an arts-based, resilience-building, identity development summer program for Latino youth. In Indiana, Latino youth fare the worst in terms of depression and suicide. This work is in collaboration with the School of Education and the Latino Health Organization, a community serving non-profit and the Indiana Minority Health Coalition. This work is now being expanded to include parents and caregivers of youth.
Her work in breast cancer in Black women includes exploring their experiences during treatment and developing interventions to improve these, especially with cancer care providers. This research follows a community-based participatory research framework, and addresses health disparities. Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than all other groups, a disparity that in Indiana translates into a 42% higher likelihood of mortality. Dr. Bigatti partners with Pink-4-Ever Ending Disparities in research efforts to address this disparity.
