As an acute care nurse in the early- and mid-2000s, Carina Katigbak, Ph.D., RN, wondered how she could help her cardiovascular patients avoid surgery in the first place. She went back to school to become an adult primary care nurse practitioner, earning a master’s degree from New York University College of Nursing in 2007 and a doctorate in 2013. Katigbak’s academic interests include immigrant and minority health, health disparities, and cardiovascular
care. As a new assistant professor, she plans to build on her dissertation research (which captured a Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award from NYU) on the role community health workers play in helping ethnic minorities, especially Asians, connect with health services and adopt healthier behaviors. Though she studied these lay workers’ impact on addressing hypertension, “I now see they can be used for any disease progression,” Katigbak said. She joins the Connell School with several years of teaching and research experience at NYU, where she most recently was an adjunct instructor and junior research scientist. Katigbak, who is coteaching an undergraduate class on health development across the life span this fall, applauds Boston College for supporting new faculty as they transition to new positions.
—by Debra Bradley Ruder, photograph by Caitlin Cunningham