Melissa A Alderfer, PhD

Biography

I am Center Director and Principal Research Scientist at the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science at Nemours Children's Hospital of Delaware, Professor of Pediatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, and a licensed Clinical Psychologist with over 25 years of research experience. My research focuses on improving the health care experiences of families of children with chronic illness. I combine qualitative and quantitative methods in my community-engaged work to conceptualize family adjustment and develop and test multi-level interventions and models of care. I have received research funding for my work from various NIH institutes (NCI, NIDDK, NIGMS) and national foundations and am currently an MPI for the Research Expanding Access to Child Health (REACH) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence. I have authored over 150 manuscripts and chapters based on my work and have mentored many successful junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from a range of disciplines (e.g., psychology, medicine, nursing) on research grants, early career awards, and training grants (e.g., K12s, F31).