Melissa Maglione
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology

"I am currently a Clinical Psychology student at Saint Louis University. I chose SLU for my graduate education because the Clinical Psychology program provides excellent training, with a balance between focus on clinical work and research. The program also allows for great variability among the students, and instead of being accepted onto a faculty member's research team, you are accepted into the program itself, which allows students the freedom to explore their interests before deciding to which area they want to dedicate themselves. Further, the Clinical Psychology faculty members have a broad range of research interests. These factors provide for a diversity of expertise within the Clinical Psychology community that was extremely appealing. However, in addition to these reasons, my research interest closely matched those of a professor who I believe could provide me with the guidance and mentoring I would need to begin my research.

Before attending SLU, I received my bachelor's degree from the University of San Francisco. After graduating, I worked with the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Research Program at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, where I worked extensively on the biological and treatment aspects of PTSD. My research interest in graduate school involve the development of the disorder. I am particularly interested in the risk and resiliency characteristics behind the development of PTSD, as well as symptom profiles of various populations that experience trauma, including battered women and emergency service workers. After I receive my graduate degree in Clinical Psychology, I hope to work in an academic setting that allows me to do further research on this topic."