Patricia Buzelli

Patricia G. Buzelli, PhDc, MSN, BA, AGNP-C is a recipient of Duke University's Dean's Graduate Fellowship and has a research interest in improving care for Latinx families living through the loss of a child focusing on resiliency and strength-based approaches. Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Patricia has wielded her lived experiences of immigration and personal loss to guide her academic and clinical pursuits. She graduated Suma Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a psychology degree, where she worked as a research assistant in the Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, was in the first cohort of the Health Equity Scholars Program in 2012, and completed a multi-semester independent study focused on family processes in grief through a cultural lens.

Having always wanted to pursue a career in nursing, she then attended Johns Hopkins University for her BSN and MSN-NP where she was a research honors student and completed the Fuld Leadership, Quality, and Safety Research Fellowship. Patricia then immersed herself in clinical practice as a Nurse Practitioner where she developed her expertise in hematology oncology and captured the practice challenges that remained in providing equitable care for immigrant and other minoritized populations.

Currently, Patricia studies the pediatric bereavement experiences (grief after the death of a child) of Latinx families in the United States (US) focusing on uncovering the mechanisms by which social determinants of health lead to health inequities in grief. Using Liberatory and decolonized research methodologies, Patricia’s approach places highest value on the cultural and contextual grounding of how individuals and families grieve and challenges the dominant discourses about mental health and well-being that are inherently oppressive and pathologizing. Patricia aims to promote social justice in grief and mental health by leading a program of research that forges the field of health equity in bereavement for immigrant and other minoritized populations in the US.