Melissa Washington-Nortey’s training began in Ghana, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with Geography and Resource Development from the University of Ghana. After this, she obtained a Master’s Degree in Child Development from the University of Haifa, Israel, and subsequently, a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), USA.

She worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Counseling and Special Education at VCU for a year after completing her doctoral education, and in August 2021, joined King’s College London.

Melissa has developed and taught courses in Global Mental Health and Developmental Psychology, such as “Clinical Trial Methodologies and Strategies” and “Lifespan Developmental Psychology”. She is passionate about supporting others' professional development and routinely delivers guest lectures and training to students, early-career researchers, and non-academic professionals at various institutions.

Her research focuses on examining cultural and contextual factors that affect the cognitive, socio-emotional development, and mental health of vulnerable children (e.g., children with developmental disorders) and their caregivers to develop relevant interventions. She is skilled at using culturally appropriate qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research strategies to obtain pertinent information for her work, which is set in minority-world countries such as the United States and majority-world countries such as Ghana, Zambia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Research interests

• Developmental disabilities such as autism and intellectual disabilities
• Child development in global contexts
• Parenting factors influencing children's cognitive and socio-emotional development
• School-based factors influencing children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development

Expertise and public engagement 

Melissa serves as a reviewer for the following peer-reviewed journals:

• Autism
• Journal of Child and Family Studies
• School Mental Health