About
Dr. Melissa L. Desroches is an Assistant Professor of Nursing in the Community Department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where she earned her BSN, MSN and PhD in nursing. She completed an NIH-funded post-doctoral research fellowship at Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute in 2019 and she was a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Fellow from 2017-2018 at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She also holds a certificate in Disability and Health Policy from Suffolk University Moakley Center for Public Management. She is the founding chair of the Research Council of the Developmental Disabilities Nurses Association and a board member of the Alliance for Disability in Health Care Education. She is also an active member of Eastern Nursing Research Society and Sigma Theta Tau International.
Dr. Desroches’ research mission is to reduce health inequities experienced by people with developmental disabilities. Specific areas of inquiry include nurses’ attitudes and emotions toward caring for adults with intellectual disabilities and how these influence nursing care; education, empowerment and advocacy in the specialty of developmental disability nursing in the US and internationally; and holistic health promotion and wellness for people with intellectual disabilities.