1

Mara L. Merlino, Ph.D.

Curriculum Vitae

A. Contact Information

Home Address: 1096 Twelve Oaks Drive, Lawrenceburg, KY 40342

Phone: (502) 597-5053 (Work)

(502) 352-3301 (Cell)

E-mail: or

B. Education History

1. University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada- 1995 to 2005

Degrees: Ph.D. (May 2005); Social Psychology, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno

M.A. (August 2002); Social Psychology, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno

Dissertation: “The Social Construction of the Admissibility of Expert Testimony after Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.”

Research specialization: Social Psychology and Law including: the production and use of expert testimony in the courts; judicial decision-making, jury decision-making, judge and attorney education, gender and the law, domestic violence and the law, the influence of extra-legal factors in the presentation of evidence, jury research, litigation counseling.

2. Mesa State College, Grand Junction, Colorado- 1991 to 1995

Degree: B.A. (August 1995); Psychology, Summa Cum Laude

C. Professional Experience

Supervisory Experience

Co-Project Director, Bluegrass State Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence, Kentucky State University

Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences

January 2017-present

Developed all courses for a Minor in Interdisciplinary Intelligence Studies. Duties: Liaise with the Project Directors at Eastern Kentucky University, and Morehead State University to develop and implement teaching, research, and training in intelligence and security, with the goal of preparing the next generation of intelligence and security professionals in the areas of national security, homeland security, law enforcement, and corporate security; advise students in the Interdisciplinary Intelligence Minor; develop relevant courses and program activities; engage students in Consortium activities such as colloquia, workshops, job fairs, and other activities designed to create pathways from college to careers in intelligence and security. Courses: Radicalization.

Graduate Program Coordinator, M.A. in Interdisciplinary Behavioral Science,

Kentucky State University

Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences

August 2014-present

Developed MA program from inception to its implementation in Fall 2014. Created all courses and syllabi for the Psychology and Law track, as well as courses for a second MA track for Licensed Practical Counseling. Duties: Recruit and advise MA Students; maintain all graduate student records for the program; manage staffing for the program. Courses: Graduate-level courses in Psychology and Law; Intermediate Research Methods; Law and Social Science; Program Evaluation; other courses as assigned.

Teaching Experience

Associate Professor of Psychology and Sociology, Kentucky State University

Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences

May 2013-present

Courses: Introductory Psychology, Psychology and Law, Social Psychology, Industrial Psychology, Social Cognition, Introduction to Sociology, Introduction to Criminology, Cognitive Psychology, Advanced Research Methods, Research Practicum, other courses as assigned.

Assistant Professor of Psychology and Sociology, Kentucky State University

August 2009 – May 2013

Courses: Introductory Psychology, Psychology and Law, Social Psychology, Industrial Psychology, Social Cognition, Introduction to Sociology, Introduction to Criminology, Cognitive Psychology, Advanced Research Methods, Research Practicum, other courses as assigned.

Graduate Faculty, University of Nevada, Reno

Judicial Studies Program, University of Nevada, Reno

Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno (adjunct)

Justice Management Program, University of Nevada, Reno

June 2005 to present

Instructor (full-time faculty)

Human Development and Family Studies, University of Nevada, Reno

One-year, non-tenure track appointment

August 2008 – July 2009

Course instructor: Research Methods, Lifespan Development, Theories of Human Development.

Instructor (full-time faculty)

School of Social Research and Justice Studies, University of Nevada, Reno

One-year, non-tenure track appointment

July 2007 – June 2008

Joint appointment in Criminal Justice and Sociology departments. Course instructor: Research Methods, Introductory Statistics, Introductory Sociology (undergraduate).

Instructor (part-time faculty), University of Nevada, Reno

School of Public Health, January 2007 – May 2007

Research Methods II (undergraduate).

Human Development and Family Studies, August 2006 – December 2006

Theories of Development (graduate).

Department of Psychology, June 2006 – July 2006

Social Psychology (undergraduate).

Department of Sociology, January 2004 – December 2004

Introductory Statistics (undergraduate).

Adjunct Faculty

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, Nevada

August 1999 – 2005

Introductory Psychology; Psychology of Human Adjustment; Aging in American Society (interdisciplinary psychology/sociology course); Social Psychology; Abnormal Psychology; Psychology of Dreaming; Introductory Sociology

Instructor (part-time)

Department of Psychology, Western Nevada Community College, Carson City, Nevada

September 2003 – December 2003

Abnormal Psychology.

Internship Supervisor

Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, University of Nevada, Reno

September 2000 – May 2001

Supervision of two undergraduate interns at the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies.

Teaching Assistant

Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno

Full time (20 hour position)

August 1996 – May 1997

Supervision of the Introductory Psychology PSI testing lab, proctoring and grading unit, mid-term, and final exams, lecturing on specified topics, and grading term papers on lecture topics. Supervision of up to 15 undergraduate proctors, as well as proctoring responsibilities when necessary to meet work load.

Teaching Assistant

Department of Sociology, University of Nevada, Reno

Full time (20 hour position)

August 1995 – May 1996

Proctoring and grading unit, mid-term, and final exams, lecturing on specified topics, and grading term papers on lecture topics.

Funded Grants

Title: “Citizen Journalism and Public Cynicism toward Police in the United States.” PI: Mara Merlino, PhD; Co-PIs: Johnathon Sharp, PhD, Tierra Freeman, PhD; with Lana Browning, MA Program in Interdisciplinary Behavioral Science. Submitted to the National Science Foundation, 8/1/2016; Requested: $260,161; Funding Status: declined.

Title: “Nonverbal Communication and Deception: A multi-Method Investigation of Physical Indicators of Deception.” Bluegrass State Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence Scholars Program Grant, Eastern Kentucky University (Student Ivan Duvall), 5/9/2016; Requested: $2,971; Funding Status: funded, $2,971.

Title: “Leadership Exchange/The Global Leadership Program in Prague, Czech Republic.” Bluegrass State Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence Scholars Program Grant, Eastern Kentucky University (Student Olivia Burkett), 5/13/2016; Requested: $3,000; Funding Status: funded, $3,000.

Title: “Cognitive Human Factors and Forensic Document Examiner Methods and Procedures.” PI: Mara L. Merlino, Ph.D.: Submitted to the National Institute of Justice, 4/02/2015; Requested: $728,615; Funding status: funded, $728,615.

Title: “Validity, Reliability, Accuracy, and Bias in Forensic Signature Identification.” PI: Mara L. Merlino, Ph.D.; Co-PI: Tierra M. Freeman, Ph.D.: Submitted to the National Institute of Justice, 4/16/2010; Requested: $466,710; Funding status: funded, $466,710.

Title: “Science in the Law School Curriculum: The Diffusion of Practice Innovations after Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.” PI: James T. Richardson, J.D., Ph.D.; Co-PI: Mara Merlino, M.A. (primary grant author); Submitted to the National Science Foundation, 8/15/04; Requested: $270,669; Funding status: funded, $244,996.

Title: “Doctoral Dissertation Research: Structural Independence of Administrative Adjudicators and Justice System Stakeholders’ Views of Procedural Justice. Co-authored with PI: James T. Richardson, J.D., Ph.D.; Co-PI: Hon. Christopher McNeil; submitted to the National Science Foundation, 8/15/05; Requested, $11,686; Funding status: funded, $11,686.

Title: “Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Social Construction of the Admissibility of Expert Testimony after Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, Inc.” PI: Colleen I. Murray, Ph.D. (Dissertation Advisor); Co-PIs: Mara Merlino, M.A. (primary grant author), James T. Richardson, J.D., Ph.D.; Submitted to the Sociology Program, Division of Social and Economic Sciences, National Science Foundation, Dissertation Improvement Grant, 2/15/04; Requested: $7,499; Funding status: funded, $7,499.

Title: “Fire Science Academy Course Evaluation.” PI: James T. Richardson, J.D., Ph.D.; Co-PI: Mara Merlino, M.A.; submitted to the Fire Science Academy at the University of Nevada, Reno, 4/15/05; Requested: $34,703; Funding status: funded, $34,703.

Research Experience

Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory Coordinator - Behavioral and Social Sciences, Kentucky State University

Fall 2009 – present

Duties: Design and implement research projects to facilitate interdisciplinary student research skills; grant writing to obtain external support for research involving student research assistants; instructing students in research methodology and statistics in a practical setting.

Research Assistant Professor – Center for Research Design and Analysis, University of Nevada, Reno

October 2008 – August 2009

Duties: Identifying potential grant funding sources; assisting CRDA director and Associate Director with all phases of project development and grant-writing, including project budgeting; grant writing and survey research methods consultant; production of project deliverables.

Post-Doctoral Fellow - Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, University of Nevada, Reno

May 2005 – June 2007

Co-PI and Project Director, “Science in the Law School Curriculum: The Diffusion of Practice Innovations after Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. National survey of law school professors sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Duties: all phases of project development and administration, including primary grant authorship, project design, development of survey instruments and code books, survey management including hiring, training, and supervising the staff of interviewers and coders, data analysis, and production of project deliverables.

Graduate Research Assistant - Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, University of Nevada, Reno
Full time (20 hour) position

January 1998 – May 2005

Duties: Research and administrative projects as assigned by the director. General administrative responsibilities include: assisting faculty and graduate students with grant writing in the broadly-defined area of justice studies; survey management, including training and supervision of survey staff and research assistants; project management; evaluation research; LEXIS searches; literature reviews; research development and implementation; survey design; data collection, including telephone interviewing; data coding and cleaning; data analyses; and report writing.

Project Director (June 2004 – June 2005) - “Volunteers in Misdemeanor Court.” National evaluation project sponsored by The National Judicial College, Reno, NV.

Duties: all phases of project management, design, and implementation, including supervision of staff, maintaining data quality, data analyses, and production of the final report.

Project Supervisor (September - October 2003) - “Washington D.C. Court Improvement Project.” Sponsored by the Permanency Planning for Children Department of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Reno, NV and the Center for Court Excellence, Washington, D.C.

Duties: training and supervising 14 project staff; tracking of cases and overall project management; piloting and development of codebooks; coding and check-coding of data entry; and some data collection.

Project Director (June 2000 - May 2001) - “Science Education Programs for the State and Federal Judiciary at Year 2001.” National research project funded by the Federal Judicial Center, Washington D.C.

Duties: all phases of project management, design, and implementation, including supervision of staff, maintaining data quality, data analyses, and production of the final report.

Project Manager (June - September 2000) - “Master of Judicial Studies Program Evaluation 2000.” National survey research project sponsored by The State Justice Institute.

Duties: all phases of the secondary data analysis component of the evaluation; including development of the code book, supervision of staff, coding and check coding of data, data entry and verification, data analysis, and the report writing. For the telephone survey component, responsibilities included conducting the pilot interviews for the telephone survey, as well as a number of telephone surveys during the data collection period; supervision of staff; check-coding; data entry and data entry verification; data analysis; and report writing.

Survey Manager (January - October 1999) - “Judicial Workload Pilot Project.” National survey research project sponsored by the Permanency Planning for Children Department, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies. Funded by the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.

Duties: all phases of survey management and implementation, including construction of the survey instrument and code book, training and supervision of survey staff, scheduling and conducting judge interviews, maintaining data quality (including supervision of coding, check-coding, check-code verification, data entry, entry verification, and data cleaning); direct responsibility for data analyses and results section of final report and the annotated bibliography produced prior to the development of the survey instruments.

Project Manager (June 1997 - December 1999) - “Science in the Courtroom,” national survey of state trial court judges. Sponsored by the State Justice Institute (Grant No. SJI-97-02B-D-030); The National Judicial College; The Federal Judicial Center; The Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno; The Permanency Planning for Children Department of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Grant No. 96-CT-NX-001).

Duties: all phases of project management and implementation, including training and supervision of up to 15 survey staff, assistance with construction of the survey instrument, development of a code book, scheduling and conducting judge interviews, maintaining data quality (including supervision of coding, check-coding, check-code verification, data entry, entry verification, and data cleaning), and data analyses. Also data analyses for portions of a model curriculum that was directly developed from the results of this research. (see “A Judge’s Deskbook on the Basic Philosophies and Methods of Science,” written by Shirley A. Dobbin, Ph.D. and Sophia I. Gatowski, Ph.D., at www.unr.edu/bench).

Consultation and Focus Group Research Experience

Research Method and Statistics Consultant and Research Coordinator, Judicial Studies Program and Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, University of Nevada, Reno

June 2004 – August 2009

Duties: assist judges who are M.A. and Ph.D. students in the Judicial Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Reno with research methods, statistics, and grant writing for their theses and dissertations. Design, implement, and supervise research projects at the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, including project development, grant writing, supervision of research staff, data analysis, and production of project deliverables.

Independent Litigation Consultant (Contract)

January 2000 – present

Duties: Focus group and mock jury research related to litigation. All phases of research design, implementation, data analysis, and reporting.

Ronald C. Dillehay, Ph.D., Reno, NV (Principal Consultant)

February – March 2002

Duties: literature and Internet searches; content analysis of newspaper articles and news video clips related to a high profile pre-trial publicity civil case; directly responsible for cataloging video materials, creating the codebook and code sheets for both the newspaper articles and video clips; training coders; coding, check-coding, check-code verifying, and data entry.

Court-Appointed Visitor, District Court of Mesa County, Grand Junction, CO

January 1991 – June 1995

Duties: Court-appointed neutral investigator contracted to interview and assess individuals alleged to be mentally incapacitated and individuals applying for guardianship, and submit written affidavit of recommendations for granting guardianship in probate proceedings.

D. Scholarly Activity

Manuscripts in Progress

Merlino, M.L., Freeman, T. M., Dahir, V., Springer, V., Hammond, D., Dyer, A. D., Found, B.J. (to be submitted to the Journal of Forensic Sciences). Forensic Examiner and Lay Person Comparison of Decision Accuracy Considering Signature Type and Complexity.