Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Dr. Alyssa Gatto received her B.S. in psychology from Binghamton University and her Ph.D. in clinical science from Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on improving individual and community well-being, while considering routes to improve dissemination of appropriate mental healthcare to vulnerable populations. She is interested in examining strategies to improve psychological well-being in adolescence and establish effective and accessible prevention by targeting cross-cutting mechanisms like emotion regulation. Dr. Gatto is sensitive to how inequities and timing of life experiences can shape developmental trajectories, such as early trauma and discrimination.

Clinically, she has pursued years of specialized training to develop expertise in working with the most vulnerable adolescents, as well as youth engaging in risky and offending behaviors, including substance use, who exhibit high rates of emotion dysregulation. In addition to accruing experience working with community-dwelling youth, she has worked with system-involved youth living in correctional placements. She is committed to conducting patient-oriented research to improve the lives of vulnerable and under-served youth. She aims to conduct research with vulnerable adolescents in need of improving their regulatory capacities in a way that is cost-effective to create and implement evidence-based prevention and interventions in underserved communities.

Following her fellowship with the BRIDGE program, Dr. Gatto started a new position as a Mental Health Quality and Pragmatic Implementation Researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.