Overview
 

Sidra Goldman-Mellor is an associate professor of public health at the University of California, Merced. Her research focuses on identifying social, clinical, and economic determinants of mental health problems -- particularly suicidal behavior -- across the lifecourse, and on understanding excess morbidity and mortality among people suffering from mental disorder. Much of her recent work uses linked population-based administrative datasets (e.g., emergency department data and death records) to examine these questions and to inform public mental health surveillance efforts. Populations she is particularly focused on include youths and pregnant/postpartum women.

Dr. Goldman-Mellor was on sabbatical leave as a Fulbright Scholar during the spring and summer of 2023. Her Fulbright research used population-based Norwegian linked health and social register data to investigate how experiencing serious acts of violence is associated with subsequent risk for non-fatal and fatal suicidal behavior, as well as psychiatric disorder. This work is shedding new light on the links between violence and suicidality, which pose growing health threats worldwide.

Dr. Goldman-Mellor and her team are currently working on research examining mortality and morbidity due to drugs, self-harm, and violence during pregnancy and the postpartum period (R01 HD102319-01). She recently completed a project studying the long-term morbidity, mortality, and healthcare utilization of people who present to the emergency department after suicide attempt (R15 MH113108-01). She serves as the U.C. Merced site PI of the California Policy Lab, and consults on a wide range of NIH-funded grants and contracts.

You can find more information about ongoing and past projects on the Research page, and links to selected papers on the Publications page. You can find information about the courses Dr. Goldman-Mellor teaches on the Teaching page.

Research Interests

• Lifecourse determinants of suicidal behavior
• Health and social outcomes among people suffering from mental disorder
• Morbidity and mortality due to mental health problems, substance use, and violence among pregnant and postpartum people
• Links between psychological disorder and violence
• Public mental health surveillance

Education

• NICHD T32 postdoctoral fellowship (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with mentors at Duke University)
• Ph.D. in Epidemiology (University of California, Berkeley)
• M.P.H. in Social and Behavioral Health (University of California, Berkeley)