Marisa Giggie, MD, MPAff
Associate Professor, Fellowship Director Behavioral Health
Dr. Marisa Giggie is associate professor and vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the College of Community Health Sciences. She directs the College's Behavioral Health in Primary Care Fellowship. She is a child, adolescent, general and forensic psychiatrist who cares for patients in her psychiatric clinic at University Medical Center, which the College operates. Giggie is also chief psychiatrist for the Tuscaloosa County Jail and medical director for A Reprieve for Women, an addiction rehabilitation program. In addition, she provides forensic psychiatric consultations for clients.
Giggie spent several years as one of The University of Alabama’s primary psychiatrists, treating students with mental health issues. She teaches third and fourth-year medical students, family medicine residents and behavioral medicine fellows in both clinical and traditional didactic settings. Her research interests include violence prevention, addiction, student mental health and physician mental health.
Giggie received a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and a master’s degree in Public Affairs from The LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She focused on public health access issues and worked for two years in health-care consulting. She completed a post- baccalaureate degree in pre-medical studies from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania before completing medical school at Medical College of Pennsylvania/Hahnemann School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Giggie completed a residency in psychiatry, a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry and a fellowship in forensic psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio. She was chief resident in child and adolescent psychiatry. She is a member of the American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law and the American Association of Community Psychiatrists. She has been recognized as a Distinguished Fellow by the American Psychiatric Association and has publications in college mental health, violence prevention, addiction and access to care issues.