{"id":15599,"date":"2019-08-13T08:55:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T08:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/?p=15599"},"modified":"2025-09-18T07:27:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:27:43","slug":"kniitsu","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/nhs\/people\/faculty\/kniitsu","title":{"rendered":"Kosuke “Ko” Niitsu,PhD, ARNP, PMHNP-BC, Associate Professor (He\/Him\/His)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dr. Kosuke \u201cKo\u201d Niitsu received his Bachelor\u2019s degrees in Biological Sciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and in Nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Upon graduation, he worked as a staff nurse at an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Midwest. While working on his Master\u2019s degree at UNMC, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disasters occurred, which led him to study stress and trauma further in the UNMC PhD program. Subsequently, he completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in Precision Psychiatric Mental Health Care at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz). He also worked as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) at CU Anschutz to provide mental health care for professional learners, including medical residents. He currently works as a PMHNP at the Counseling Center<\/a> 10 hours a week for students enrolled at UW Bothell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scholarship<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When exposed to a stressful event, such as natural disaster, some people are more vulnerable to stress-related disorders, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. On the other hand, others are less adversely affected by the event, who are often described as \u201cresilient\u201d. Dr. Niitsu has been interested in what variables contribute to individual differences in resilience by investigating biopsychosocial factors, including genetics. He believes in the human\u2019s potential to be resilient, and he has been reflecting what he learns from the resilience research on his clinical practice and teaching to maximize our potential to be resilient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
\nAurora, CO<\/p>\n\n\n\n