Contact Information

Biography

Melissa Kalarchian, Ph.D., brings a strong research background, passion for teaching, and creative leadership to her role as Associate Dean for Research. She graduated cum laude with High Honors in Psychology from Dartmouth College and earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Rutgers University. Dr. Kalarchian completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and subsequently joined the faculty there. Prior to coming to Duquesne, she served as Co-Director of the Psychology Internship Program at WPIC, nationally recognized for its high quality training based on a clinical science model.

Dr. Kalarchian is a psychologist specializing in behavioral medicine. Her research interests focus on adapting evidence-based lifestyle interventions to meet the needs of vulnerable populations such as individuals undergoing bariatric surgery, obese children, patients taking antipsychotic medications, pregnant women, and smokers. She collaborates with colleagues in nursing, psychiatry, public health, statistics and surgery. Dr. Kalarchian has been instrumental in securing over 8 million dollars in research funding. Most recently, she has been Principal Investigator on several National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Foundation funded studies geared to helping patients achieve maximal weight loss and optimal psychosocial functioning after weight loss surgery. She has published extensively in her field and lectures both locally and nationally. Dr. Kalarchian has been a standing member of NIH and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grant review panels and serves as a peer reviewer for numerous biomedical journals. She has been an active member of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), the American Heart Association (AHA), the Eating Disorders Research Society (EDRS), and is a Fellow of the Obesity Society (FTOS). She is ideally positioned to lead Duquesne University School of Nursing's mission for research, scholarship and innovation.

Education

  • Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, 1998
  • Psychology Internship, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, 1998
  • MS, Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, 1996
  • BA, Dartmouth College, 1989

Research Interests

  • Obesity and bariatric surgery
  • Behavioral lifestyle intervention
  • Psychosocial functioning
  • Health behaviors
  • Clinical studies

School

About

  • Gionfriddo, M. R., McClendon, C., Nolfi, D. A., Kalarchian, M. A., & Covvey, J. R. (2025). The importance of rigor in pharmacy research: Challenges and solutions. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 21(5), 424-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2025.02.005
  • Brar, P. S., Pienkos, E., Porto, A., Wood, H. J., Sarpal, D., Kalarchian, M. A., Schreiber, J. B., & Kranjec, A. (2024). Methods and models for investigating anomalous experiences in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Philosophical Psychology, 38(5), 2310-2334. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2024.2305232
  • Spigelmyer, P. C., Kalarchian, M., Lutz, C., & Brar, P. (2023). Mindfulness self-compassion: Helping family caregivers cope with cognitive behaviors of dementia. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 41(2), 118-129. https://doi.org/10.1177/08980101221123730
  • Yu, Y., Yeh, K.-L., Kalarchian, M. A., & Groth, S. (2023). Experiences of loss of control eating in women after bariatric surgery: A qualitative study. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 56(6), 1145–1155. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23912
  • Ivezaj, V., Kalarchian, M. A., King, W. C., Devlin, M. J., Mitchell, J. E., & Crosby, R. D. (2022). Inter-rater reliability and internal consistency of the eating disorder examination in the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery Study. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 18(8), 1015-1022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soard.2022.04.015
  • Inocian, E. P., Nolfi, D. A., Felicilda-Reynaldo, R. F. D., Bodrick, M. M., Aldohayan, A., & Kalarchian, M. A. (2021). Bariatric surgery in the Middle East and North Africa: Narrative review with focus on culture-specific considerations. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 17(11), 1933–1941. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soard.2021.06.015
NIH/NINDS 2022-2025
Project: Enhancing experimental rigor through education in evidence synthesis
Role: Co-I
  • Inducted as a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine - 2023
  • Fellow, the Obesity Society (TOS) - 2023
  • Recognized as an Expertscape Expert in Obesity (PubMed-based algorithms for being in top 1% of scholars over the past 10 years) - 2022
  • Office of Women's Health, US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Shape of Health: An Obesity Prevention Game Challenge, Phase 2 ($20,000) & 3 ($55,000) first place prize winner (Kalarchian & Hammer) - 2020
  • Paper co-authored with student (The impact of patient characteristics and postoperative opioid exposure on prolonged postoperative opioid use) was 6th most cited research from Pain Management Nursing - 2018 to 2020
  • Office of Women's Health, US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Shape of Health: An Obesity Prevention Game Challenge, Phase 1 ($2,000) prize winner (Kalarchian & Hammer) - 2019
  • Duquesne University Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship - 2019
  • School of Nursing Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship - 2019
  • Dartmouth Admissions Ambassador, designated “top 100” helpful and insightful report out of 16,937 interview reports submitted for class of 2023 - 2019