Melissa Park

Melissa Park, PhD OTR/L received her doctorate in Occupational Science and masters in Occupational Therapy from the University of Southern California, and her bachelors in the History of Art from Yale University. These diverse interests have led to a research trajectory focusing on the forms of visual, bodily, linguistic and other forms of human interaction and communication that occur within institutional settings for individuals with chronic illness and disability status. After completing her dissertation examining the dyadic interaction of children with autism and attention deficit hyperactive disorder and occupational therapists that included narrative interviews with the families and providers under the guidance of an interdisciplinary team, she took two postdoctoral research associate positions that specifically target service delivery, cultural competence, and health care disparities.

As a postdoctoral scholar on Dr. Mattingly (anthropology) and Dr. Lawlor’s (rehabilitation science) Boundary Crossings: Re-situating Cultural Competence (National Institute of Health R01 HD03887805), Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, LA CA, she used ethnographic methods with a narrative focus while developing strategies to capture and key moments in the unfolding lives of African American families with children with disabilities across over eight years of data. Her current work as a postdoctoral research associate examines the experiences of providers and individuals with severe mental illness on Dr. Brekke’s (social work), Dr. Braslow’s (psychiatry/history) and Dr. Hamilton’s (anthropology) MHSA System Transformation & Clinical Care Study (National Institute of Mental Health 1R01MH080671-01), University of California @ Los Angeles-Neuropsychiatric Institute and University of Southern California, LA, CA using a mixed methods approach.

Dr. Park’s focus on interdisciplinary teamwork and mixed methods to understand the complexity of what happens during encounters between service providers and service recipients has also been a key point of departure for her positions as a guest faculty and collaborator with the Scandinavian Seminar in Narrative Methods at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Chair of the Research Committee for the Society for the Study of Occupation:USA.

Graduate Student Researchers Faculty Partners Post-Doctoral Fellows Elizabeth Bromley Bowen Chung Jack Friedman Judy Ho Erum Nadeem Vicky Ngo Melissa Park Staff
	Melissa Park Melissa Park, PhD OTR/L received her doctorate in Occupational Science and masters in Occupational Therapy from the University of Southern California, and her bachelors in the History of Art from Yale University. These diverse interests have led to a research trajectory focusing on the forms of visual, bodily, linguistic and other forms of human interaction and communication that occur within institutional settings for individuals with chronic illness and disability status. After completing her dissertation examining the dyadic interaction of children with autism and attention deficit hyperactive disorder and occupational therapists that included narrative interviews with the families and providers under the guidance of an interdisciplinary team, she took two postdoctoral research associate positions that specifically target service delivery, cultural competence, and health care disparities. As a postdoctoral scholar on Dr. Mattingly (anthropology) and Dr. Lawlor’s (rehabilitation science) Boundary Crossings: Re-situating Cultural Competence (National Institute of Health R01 HD03887805), Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, LA CA, she used ethnographic methods with a narrative focus while developing strategies to capture and key moments in the unfolding lives of African American families with children with disabilities across over eight years of data. Her current work as a postdoctoral research associate examines the experiences of providers and individuals with severe mental illness on Dr. Brekke’s (social work), Dr. Braslow’s (psychiatry/history) and Dr. Hamilton’s (anthropology) MHSA System Transformation & Clinical Care Study (National Institute of Mental Health 1R01MH080671-01), University of California @ Los Angeles-Neuropsychiatric Institute and University of Southern California, LA, CA using a mixed methods approach. Dr. Park’s focus on interdisciplinary teamwork and mixed methods to understand the complexity of what happens during encounters between service providers and service recipients has also been a key point of departure for her positions as a guest faculty and collaborator with the Scandinavian Seminar in Narrative Methods at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Chair of the Research Committee for the Society for the Study of Occupation:USA.				Contact Info