Dr. Michelle Martel is a full professor and the new chair of the psychology department at the University of Kentucky. Her double major B.A. was earned at the University of Iowa and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Michigan State University.

Dr. Martel has a federally funded research program on ADHD and transdiagnostic externalizing problems, including substance use and conduct disorders. Her research utilizes a translational, “bench to bedside” perspective on developmental pathways to externalizing problems including early-emerging mechanisms and markers such as temperament/personality traits and cognition, as well as postulated etiological factors such as neural underpinnings, genetics, and environmental factors, all in order to refine phenotypes and predict longitudinal outcomes. The goal of her clinical research program is to elucidate sex differences and hormonal mechanisms of externalizing psychopathology across the lifespan.

Her innovative work on hormonal effects on impulsivity is leading to cutting-edge advances in personalized assessment and treatment of women’s health and currently receives about five million in funding from the National Institute of Mental Health and National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She has published over 90 high impact peer-reviewed articles, as well as three books disseminating her work to clinicians, in addition to her editorial work at leading assessment journals. She is also a licensed child clinical psychologist who assesses and treats a wide variety of child clinical problems in private practice, hospital, and academic settings with particular expertise in assessment and treatment of externalizing problems between early childhood and young adulthood.