Emily Mellen (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in clinical science and member of the Biopsychosocial Effects of Stigma (BEST) Lab at Harvard. She graduated from Middlebury College in 2017 with a B.A. in Psychology. Before joining the Clinical Research Lab, Emily worked as a Research Assistant at McLean Hospital in an interdisciplinary research role studying Alzheimer's Disease, psychotic disorders as well as trauma and dissociative disorders. She has long been interested in the effects of interpersonal trauma, and especially sexual violence, on psychosocial outcomes.

Currently, Emily's research focuses on the intersection of stigma and sexual violence. Her current projects are aimed at bridging these two literatures by further developing the construct of sexual violence stigma through multi-level, multi-timepoint measurement approaches and connecting these measures to individual-level health outcomes. Emily adopts a translational approach to her work, investigating research questions through a neurobiological, cognitive, social, and structural lens.

Clinically, Emily is a practicum student at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress (CATSD), where she is passionate about providing evidence-based treatments to patients who have experienced trauma, particularly those who have survived sexual violence.

Emily often works with research assistants and values the contributions of all students interested in her work, especially those holding stigmatized identities. She strongly believes that diverse and varied perspectives lead to the best ideas, both within and outside of the context of her scientific research and is grateful for student’s interest in her work.