From the College of Public Health
Stacy Endres-Dighe focuses on HIV prevention among rural Appalachian Ohioans who inject drugs.
Stacy Endres-Dighe was a child when she learned about the chilling impact of stigma on health. Her uncle died during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic after delaying testing and treatment because of the way society viewed AIDS patients at the time.
“It had this ripple effect on my family,” she said. “I knew…that something, this stigma and the reason behind him not pursuing health care, was a serious public health problem.”
This foundational experience fuels her interest in public health decades later. As a PhD student in epidemiology at the College of Public Health, Endres-Dighe is focused on the impact of resilience on stigma and HIV prevention among individuals who inject drugs in rural Appalachia Ohio.