Melanie Killen is Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology Professor of Psychology (Affiliate), and the Associate Director for the Center for Children, Relationships, and Culture at the University of Maryland.

Professor Killen has received funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), for her research on children’s and adolescents’ moral development, social reasoning about exclusion, intergroup bias, prejudice, and social cognition in childhood. She was awarded the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award by the Provost from the University of Maryland for 2008-2009. Her publications include co-authoring with Adam Rutland the book, "Children and Social Exclusion: Morality, Prejudice, and Group Identity" (2011) and co-editing 6 books, including a co-edited book with Sheri Levy entitled "Intergroup Attitudes and Relationships in Childhood through Adulthood" (2008), as well as serving as the Editor of the "Handbook on Moral Development" (2006, 2014) with Judith Smetana.

Professor Killen has served as an expert witness in a school desegregation case, and helped prepare two Supreme Court briefs regarding the impact of school desegregation on children’s social development. She has also served as a consultant for a federal initiative on interventions designed to reduce prejudice and promote inclusion in U.S. elementary schools, and as a consultant for the Southern Poverty Law Center to design an online teacher sensitivity to bias measure. Her expertise lies in the areas of developmental intergroup attitudes, moral reasoning, and developmental social cognition.