Dr. Melissa McDaniels is an Associate Executive Director & scientist in CIMER at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Since 2020, she has held appointments in both the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and UW’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
From 2014–2025, McDaniels served as a co-investigator on federally supported workforce development grants, including the NIH-supported National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and the NSF-supported Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN). She develops and implements interventions and convenes national communities of practice to strengthen the scientific workforce.
Prior to these roles at UW–Madison, McDaniels served on the Michigan State University Graduate School leadership team (2013–2020), where she collaborated with faculty to support graduate students and postdocs in developing their capacities as postsecondary instructors and mentors.
From 2008–2012, McDaniels served as Director of Michigan State University’s NSF ADVANCE Grant, where she spearheaded the institution’s efforts to diversify the faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. In this role, she was responsible for developing and implementing MSU’s new faculty mentoring policy.
Before her time at MSU, she held full-time positions at Northeastern University, Boston College, and the National Geographic Society. McDaniels has over 20 years of experience supporting equity-centered organizational change, graduate student and faculty development, and undergraduate teaching and learning. She has had the pleasure of doing research and consulting domestically and internationally. McDaniels holds degrees from Michigan State University (PhD), Boston College (MA), and the University of Michigan (BA).