Dr. Mellins is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University and a research scientist at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University. Over the past 15 years she has completed projects examining individual and family psychosocial factors mediating medical adherence in HIV-infected women and children; sexual and drug use risk behavior in uninfected youth with HIV-infected mothers; and psychiatric and psychological functioning in HIV-infected mothers and children. She is currently the Principal Investigator of an NIMH-funded grant Mental Health and Risk Behavior in HIV+ Youth and Seroreverters (R01-MH069133), one of the few studies examining psychiatric disorders, sexual and drug risk behavior, and adherence in perinatally HIV-infected adolescents. Dr. Mellins is also an investigator and member of the neurodevelopment subcommittee of the Women and Infants Transmission Study (NIDA; U01-DA15053), a multisite study of HIV-infected pregnant women and their children, and on the steering committee responsible for the neurodevelopment and behavioral components for the federally-funded PHACS (PI Russ Van Dyke, MD).

Most recently, Dr. Mellins has worked closely with providers and intervention researchers to develop a family based prevention intervention addressing adherence, risk behavior and mental health issues in perinatally HIV-infected adolescents (CHAMP+: Supporting HIV+ youth and their families; PI Mary McKay, Co-PIs Claude Mellins and Elaine Abrams). In addition to her research, Dr. Mellins is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Special Needs Clinic at New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH), a mental health clinic for HIV-affected women, children, and families that has provided care to over 1500 patients since 1992, and the neurodevelopment supervisor for the Women and Children Care Center.

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