Dr. Melody R. Altschuler is an Assistant Research Professor of Health Management and Policy and Psychology in the Center for Innovation in Population Health at the University of Kentucky. She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and minor Anthropology from Bates College and was a Sara S. Sparrow Fellow in Clinical Neuroscience at the Yale Child Study Center. She also trained at Boston Children’s Hospital Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. In her program of research, she combines perspectives from public health and psychology.

In the Mental Health, Intersectionality, Neurodiversity, & Development in Society (MINDS) Lab, we aim to improve mental health care practices and policies to promote resilience in individuals and their communities with diverse intersectional identities across the lifespan and neurodiverse spectrum. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of developmental psychopathology and social justice using the methods of cognitive neuroscience and community-based research, we seek to improve population health to be more person-centered and strength-based, directly informed by the lived experiences of individuals in need of mental health and accessibility support. Through uncovering the developmental, compensatory, and societal processes and skills that support adaptation and improve wellness for individuals with internal and external challenges in the context of systems, we strive to bridge gaps between research, practice, and policy.