Melanie Wilcox, PhD

Assistant Professor and Researcher | Department of Psychological Sciences, the Institute of Public and Preventive Health, and the Department of Psychiatry

Augusta, GA, UNITED STATES

Dr. Wilcox's research covers multicultural counseling and competencies, as well as issues of race, sexual orientation, gender, social class.

Biography

Dr. Melanie Wilcox is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, and is an affiliated researcher with both the Institute of Public and Preventive Health and the Department of Psychiatry at Augusta University.

She is also a licensed psychologist in Georgia (GA # PSY004400), and is Board Certified in Counseling Psychology, with experience in a number of practice settings and a broad range of clinical issues. She is currently a member of the APA Board of Educational Affairs and served as Board Chair in 2020.

Wilcox completed her Predoctoral Internship at the University of Florida's Counseling and Wellness Center, with concentrations in Multicultural Competence, Assessment, and Substance Abuse. Previously, she was the Director of the Psychological Services Clinic at Louisiana Tech, and Assistant Director of the doctoral training clinic shared by Counseling and Clinical Psychology at the University at Albany, which serves as an outpatient clinic for the local community. She additionally has much experience doing group work in substance abuse and crisis treatment in both community and college counseling settings.

Her primary research interests are in multicultural counseling, multicultural competencies, and multicultural training. Wilcox is also particularly interested in issues of race, sexual orientation, gender, and social class. Additionally, she conducts research on diversity in higher education, as well as professional issues in psychology, such as leadership development, professional identity development, and training issues.

Areas of Expertise (4)

LGBTQIA+ Equality

Racism and Whiteism

Sexism

Mental Health & Wellness

Accomplishments (8)

Augusta University College of Science and Mathematics Outstanding Young Faculty Member (professional)

(April, 2022)

Southeastern Psychological Association Outstanding Professional Paper Award (professional)

"Multicultural Orientation in Cross-Racial Clinical Supervision Processes and Outcomes" (March, 2022)

Outstanding Publication of the Year Award, Society of Counseling, APA Division 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) (professional)

"It Takes Money to Make Money: Inequity in Psychology Graduate Student Borrowing and Financial Stressors." (2020)

Early Career Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Counseling Psychology, APA Division 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) (professional)

(2019)

Outstanding Early Career Professional Supervisor/Trainer Award by APA Division 17 Section for Supervision and Training (professional)

(2019)

APA Board of Educational Affairs Cynthia D. Belar Education Advocacy Distinguished Service Award (professional)

(2019)

APA Early Career Achievement Award (professional)

(2018)

Louisiana Tech University Outstanding Faculty Researcher, College of Education (professional)

(2017)

Education (3)

Cedar Crest College: B.A., Psychology 2009

University at Albany, State University of New York: Ph.D., Counseling Psychology 2015

Lehigh Carbon Community College: A.S., Psychology 2007

Affiliations (10)

American Psychological Association
Co-Chair of APA Board of Educational Affairs Holistic Admissions Working Group
APA Board of Educational Affairs
Society of Counseling Psychology (APA Division 17)
Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy (APA Division 29)
Society for the Psychology of Women (APA Division 35)
Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (APA Division 44)
Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race (APA Division 45)
Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs (CCPTP)
Co-Chair of the Leadership Collaborative

Links (2)

Articles (9)

Ban the box: Addressing effects of systemic racism on justice-involved individuals in pathways to professional psychology

Psychology

Wilcox, M. M.; Taylor, T. O.

(2022) The effects of systemic racism in the U.S. are well-documented, including within criminal justice and educational systems that disparately impact justice-involved individuals...

Oppression is not “culture”: The need to center systemic and structural determinants to address anti-Black racism and racial trauma in psychotherapy

Psychotherapy

Wilcox, M. M.

(2022) Psychology, and the United States more broadly, finds itself at yet another reckoning point with White supremacy and anti-Black racism...

Stalling at the starting line: First-generation college students’ debt, economic stressors, and delayed life milestones in professional psychology

Training and Education in Professional Psychology

Wilcox, M. M., Pietrantonio, K. R., Farra, A.*, Franks, D. N., Garriott, P. O., & Burish, E. C.*

(2021) Economic precarity is a serious concern in psychology education and training and is experienced to a greater degree by the students of color and students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds...

Layered cultural processes: The relationship between multicultural orientation and satisfaction with supervision

Training and Education in Professional Psychology

Wilcox, M. M., Drinane, J., M., Black, S. W., Cabrera, L*., DeBlaere, C., Tao, K. W., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., Watkins, C. E., Jr., & Owen, J.

(2021) Supervision has been called the “signature pedagogy” of psychotherapy, and recent literature has emphasized the importance of multicultural processes in supervision...

Who’s multiculturally competent? Everybody and nobody: a multimethod examination

The Counseling Psychologist

Wilcox, M. M., Franks, D. N., Monceaux, C. P., Taylor, T. O., & Harris, K.

(2020) This study was a social dominance theory-driven multimethod investigation of multicultural competence. Given the concerns with self-report, we examined the relationship between study variables and both self-report and performance-based multicultural competence...

A social dominance theory perspective on multicultural competence

Counseling Psychology Quarterly

Lantz [Wilcox], M. M., Pieterse, A. L., & Taylor, T. O.*

(2020) We describe and test a new perspective on understanding multicultural competencies (MCCs), namely the application of Social Dominance Theory (SDT). We argue that the process of developing MCCs is not only about learning but also unlearning; that is, unlearning beliefs developed through socialization by the dominant culture, such as the meritocracy myth, and coming to understand the role of privilege in systemic oppression...

Race and sexual orientation: An intersectional analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of the Perceptions of Police Scale

Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity

Taylor, T. O.*, Wilcox, M. M., & Monceaux, C. P.*

(2020) Research suggests that, owing to bias and discrimination in policing, members of historically marginalized groups—such as Black/African Americans and sexual minority people—report more negative perceptions of police than individuals from more privileged groups...

The role of moral reasoning and attitudes regarding bisexuality in the development of bisexual counseling competence

Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity

Monceaux, C. P.*, Wilcox, M. M., & Abbott, D.

(2020) Research on counselor competence regarding bisexuality is scarce, despite the greater prevalence of negative attitudes about bisexuality as compared to other sexual minorities (Flanders & Hatfield, 2014) both within the general public and the LGBTQ + community (Matsick & Rubin, 2018)...

It takes money to make money: Inequity in psychology graduate student borrowing and financial stressors

Training and Education in Professional Psychology

Wilcox, M. M., Barbaro-Kukade, L., Pietrantonio, K., Franks, D. N., & Davis, B L.

(2019) Nationwide, the student debt crisis has been worsening, exacerbated by gradual changes to higher education funding since the 1980s. Recent studies (e.g., Kurz, Li, & Vine, 2018) have demonstrated that Millennials are the most educated, most student loan-indebted, and poorest (in income and wealth) generation to date...