Melanie Domenech Rodriguez, PhD, is a native Puerto Rican, and clinical psychologist licensed in Utah, Idaho and Puerto Rico. She obtained her degree from Colorado State University in 1999. She is now a professor of psychology at Utah State University. She is most notable for culturally relevant approaches for Latinx families. One of her current projects in Oregon, Padres Preparados, (Parent Management Training Oregon) in conjunction with Iris Education Media, is a preventive parenting skills course. Domenech Rodriguez is a former president of the National Latino/a Psychological Association.
During the 2008 APA convention, she collaborated with the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Committee on Children, Youth and Families, on a symposium titled, “Psychological Implications of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Raids: Strategies to address mental health issues of immigrant children, youth, and families.” Some honors of hers include: The Carol Attneave Award for Diversity from the Society for Couple and Family Psychology (Div. 43 of American Psychological Association), and the Starvega Distinguished Service Award from the National Latino/a Psychological Association.
Domenech Rodriguez is the first Latina president of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology. Prior to becoming president of Psi Chi, she served as the editor of the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research. During her editorship, she greatly improved the efficiency of the journal by developing impact measures and creating more opportunities for submissions. Domenech Rodriguez exemplifies a strong commitment to mentorship, having secured 17,000 dollars in funds for 15 graduate students. She is also working in partnership with colleagues in Idaho on Pipeline to Diversity, a program focused on providing students in medical and health fields with culturally competent coursework. Additionally, she is working on a pilot project that aims to utilize distance education technology to create the sustainability of access to evidence based, culturally competent trainings.
Domenech Rodriguez is part of a groundbreaking anthology, "Latina Psychologists: Thriving in Cultural Borderlands", edited by Lillian Comas-Diaz and Carmen Inoa Vasquez. The book discusses the navigation of the intersections of gender, race and culture that Latina psychologists face, and how these factors affect their personal lives, communities, and academia. Domenech Rodriguez’s chapter, titled Staying Woke at the Intersections, explores the ways in which colonialism and Latinx culture shaped her career by providing new research questions in the field of Psychology. In this piece, she defines “staying woke” as an act of empathy needed for self-preservation. Domenech Rodriguez emphasizes the importance of being aware of both the progressions and the challenges of multicultural psychology.