Tatiana Rodriguez

Tatiana is currently on internship at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, IL . She grew up in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, right on the border with El Paso, Texas. She moved to El Paso to attend the University of Texas at El Paso at age 18. As an undergraduate, she worked face-to-face with HIV-positive Mexican American individuals. Her cultural background was of great help because she was able to communicate with Spanish-speaking Latinos and to understand their culture. In relation to HIV specifically, she quickly learned about the many disadvantages that these individuals face on a daily basis. This experience served as the basis for her graduate studies. She is currently interested in learning how acceptance and mindfulness relate to quality of life among HIV-positive Latinos. For her master's thesis, she conducted a meta-analysis examining the relationships among acceptance, mindfulness, and quality of life in people living with HIV. She reached two main conclusions: first, acceptance and mindfulness are coping skills that are associated with better health outcomes among this population and second, Latinos have not been included in studies examining acceptance and mindfulness. Therefore, for her preliminary exam and doctoral dissertation, she conducted a two-step study. The first step consisted of exploring the relationships among acceptance, mindfulness, medication adherence, biomarkers, and quality of life among HIV-positive Latinos living in the Midwest. Her dissertation consists of adapting Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for this population with the goal of improving health outcomes and medication adherence.