When Melissa McTernan arrived at the University of Mary Washington, she was sure of one thing. She was not good at math.
She found herself drawn to psychology, but she hadn’t calculated that it would come with its own mathematical hurdle – a required course in statistics – and there was no way around it. Enter Professors of Psychological Science Christine McBride and Dave Kolar, with a knack for making the daunting subject accessible.
“It was at that point that I realized I wasn’t bad at all math, and that statistics can be an interesting and valuable tool,” said McTernan, who graduated from UMW in 2010 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology at the University of California, Davis. Now, as a senior research statistician and manager of the research statistics consulting group at Boston College, she uses complex analytical tools to help other psychologists find the answers they seek through experimentation that’s valid, unbiased and rigorous.
McTernan will share her experience with current students when she returns to campus this week as UMW’s 2025 Psychology Graduate-in-Residence. She’ll present “Beyond the Classroom: The Everyday Impact of Statistics and Data Literacy” on Thursday, Sept. 11, at 4 p.m., in the Hurley Convergence Center Digital Auditorium. The public talk, she hopes, will be of interest to anyone involved in research.
McTernan grew up in Boston, the first in her family to earn a college degree. She came to Mary Washington for its size and its faculty’s focus on students, and with her eyes on a political science major and a White House career. When the psychology courses she originally picked up as filler put a new slant on her path, she spent much of her junior and senior years doing research on academic integrity and the dynamics of cheating with former UMW Professor of Psychological Science David Rettinger.
“The fact that the psychology department had amazing opportunities to do research really changed the course of my career,” she said. “I wanted to test hypothesis after hypothesis.”
As she warmed up to stats, she completed an honors thesis on the influence of morality and empathy on cheating and talked to Professor of Psychological Science Mindy Erchull about the burgeoning field of quantitative psychology. Thanks to a referral from former UMW professor Denis Nissim-Sabat, she landed a job upon graduation as a research data coordinator at Boston Children’s Hospital.
An member of Mary Washington’s inaugural Alumni of Distinction class, McTernan went on to teach and hold research-related positions at schools on opposite coasts, before signing on in 2020 at Boston College. There, she uses sophisticated statistical techniques – models for zero-inflated outcomes, longitudinal data analysis, multilevel modeling, psychometrics – to help researchers unravel mysteries. Past projects include cross-generational physical impacts of childhood war trauma, proper feeding positions for premature babies, factors related to suicide ideation in Black and Hispanic youth and, yes, predictors of academic misconduct. She urges her colleagues to seek her consult on their studies early on.
“What good is research if we’re not using the right tools to answer the questions?” McTernan said. “Part of what I love about my job and the trajectory I took after leaving Mary Washington is that statistics is universal. It’s a skill set you can use anywhere.”
The Department of Psychological Science Graduate-in-Residence program began in 1995 as a part of career advising. Each year, the faculty invites an alum who is engaged in interesting work and brings them to campus to introduce psychology majors to UMW graduates working in the field. For a list of past presenters, visit the department’s Graduates-in-Residence page.
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