Gary
B. Melton, Ph.D.
Director of the Institute
Professor
Gary B. Melton (BA, Virginia; MA, Ph.D., Boston University)
is director of the Institute and professor of psychology.
A Fellow of the American Psychological Association
(APA) and 10 of its divisions, Prof. Melton is a
past president of the American Orthopsychiatric Association,
the American Psychology-Law Society, the APA Division
of Child, Youth, and Family Services, and Childwatch
International, a global research network sponsored
by the Norwegian government.
Among other public and professional service, Prof.
Melton has served as a member of the U.S. Advisory
Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, the U.S. Attorney
General’s Expert
Panel on Youth Violence, the APA Working Group on
Child Abuse and Neglect, the APA Committee on
International Relations in Psychology, the American
Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Mental and Physical
Disability Law, the ABA and APA working groups
on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child,
the Institute of Medicine committee on training of
health professionals about family violence, the
National Research Council panel on elder mistreatment,
and the national and state boards of Parents Anonymous.
Prof. Melton has testified several times before the U.S. Congress, and he has served as a consultant to numerous state social service, mental health, legislative, and court-administrative agencies. As director of the Consortium on Children, Families, and the Law, a national network of policy research centers, he co-organized a long-standing Congressional briefing series. Prof. Melton's work has been cited by U.S. courts at all levels, and he was the principal architect of the new national child protection strategy proposed by the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect.
The author of approximately 300 publications, Prof.
Melton has published or is currently writing or editing
books on diverse topics of child and family policy
and psychology, including child research; children’s
law; pediatric AIDS; forensic mental health services;
child advocacy; rural psychology; research ethics;
children’s competence;
the law’s
effects on behavior; motivation in family relationships;
use of social science research in legal reform; child
mental health policy; child protection
policy; and international developments in child and
family policy. He has served on the editorial board
of more than 25 journals and book series.
Prof. Melton has received APA’s Award for Distinguished Contributions
to the International Advancement of Psychology (2005),
the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology
in the Public Interest (1985), the Karl Heiser Award
(1998), and the Award for Distinguished Contributions
to Public Service (1999), as well as distinguished
contributions awards from two APA divisions. He also
has received awards for distinguished research and
public service from Prevent Child Abuse America,
Psi Chi (the national honorary society in psychology),
the American Psychological Foundation, the Department
of Psychology at the University of Virginia, and
the American Professional
Society on Abuse of Children and its South Carolina
chapter.
Prof. Melton has lectured, consulted, or conducted research in approximately 40 countries and territories abroad, and much of his work in recent years has focused on the application of international human rights law to child and family policy. He was a Fulbright professor at the Norwegian Center for Child Research.
Prof. Melton also is active in research on services
for children and families in diverse contexts. He
has been principal investigator on projects funded
by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National
Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and
various state agencies and private organizations.
He is currently principal investigator on a long-term
grant from The Duke Endowment for more than $1.5
million per year to design, implement, and
evaluate a comprehensive community-wide effort to
prevent child abuse and neglect in southern Greenville
County. http://www.clemson.edu/strongcommunities
Prof. Melton has held faculty appointments at the Universities of Hawaii, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Virginia and at Morehead (Kentucky) State University. He is currently a research fellow in the Centre for Psychology and Law at the University of the Free State in South Africa.
Phone: 864.656.6271
Email: gmelton@clemson.edu