Melissa K. Peckins, Ph.D.

Dr. Peckins comes to St. John's University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology.  She received her Ph.D. in Biobehavioral Health from Pennsylvania State University.

Before joining St. John's University, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Pennsylvania State University and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  Dr. Peckins investigates how youths' social and physical environments can become biologically embedded to influence vulnerability for behavior and health problems throughout development.  Her interdisciplinary research incorporates behavioral measures, salivary biomarkers, neuroimaging, and advanced analytic approaches.  Her future research will investigate the unique impact of different types of childhood adversity on neurobiological functioning, behavior, and health from a multisystem perspective.