Jacquetta Blacker

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Credentials

BM, BCh, MA

Bio

An award-winning educator, Assistant Professor Jacquetta Blacker, MD, MA, joined the U following several years working for the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic Health System in Rochester and Austin, MN, as an assistant professor in psychiatry and a senior associate consultant. Dr. Blacker is board certified in both adult and child and adolescent psychiatry.Being at the University enables two goals for Dr. Blacker. "I want to work in clinical care with a population that has a universal shortage of healthcare providers," she explained. "Part of that is helping to strengthen inpatient services. The other part of my job is research. I want to dig into the huge data sets I have on suicide and use the resources at the U to look at post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and how it intersects with suicide. PTSD is complex – it's many different sequelae of real and perceived traumatic events." Dr. Blacker completed her general psychiatric residency and a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. A native of the United Kingdom, she completed MRCP Part 1 (Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians) at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Dr. Blacker earned her BMBCh (the equivalent of an MD) in medicine and surgery, and her Master of Arts and undergraduate degree in physiological sciences at Oxford University.She brings a wide range of experience to her work. "I have had broad exposure to all kinds of medical settings, from urban to rural, and to all kinds of socioeconomic groups," she said. "It helps me understand where a lot of people are coming from." Of the 18 articles that Dr. Blacker has had published in medical journals, she was first or senior author for 10. In addition, she has presented her work during several national and international medical meetings.When she has some spare time, she enjoys biking along Minneapolis parkways, working on home improvement projects, reading, and cooking.

Research Summary

Dr. Blacker's research interests include mood and anxiety disorders in medical-surgical populations, and suicide among medical professionals. Being part of a much larger institution that has many disciplines – and the opportunities that creates for doing cross-disciplinary work – is exciting to Blacker. "A lot of what I do is historical, looking at trends over time, how concepts have changed, how treatment has changed," she said. "Having access to specialists in history and statistics will really help move my research along." Dr. Blacker was co-investigator for three research grants, one looking at developing biomarkers that would lead to individualized treatments in bipolar patients with and without comorbid addiction; another used EEG to identify potential markers of suicidal behaviors in children between age 13-18; another examined biochemical and genetic differences in mood disorders.