Prof. Melinda H. Connor
Educational Background:
2009 – 2010 M.A. (Honors) Strategic Intelligence, Terrorism, American Military University, Charlestown, West Virginia 2003 – 2006 Fellowship: (Honors) National Institutes of Health T32 Post-Doctoral Fellow, Program in Integrative Medicine, U of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 2003 Ph.D. Clinical Psychology, California Coast University, Santa Ana, CA 2002 – 2003 Assistantship: Shasta Community Health Center, Redding, CA Psychological Assistant to Dr. Lynn Pappas, MD and Neuropsychology Rotation 2002 – 2003 Assistantship: Psychological Assistant to Dr. Marilyn Wooley, Ph.D. 1997 M.A. Counseling Psychology, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, Cupertino Campus 1996 Traineeship: MFT trainee, Arthur Lhowe, LMFT, Goodwill of Santa Clara County, San Jose, CA 1986 B.A. English and Theatre, (Directing concentration) Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 1979 A.A. Humanities, Social Science, Harvard University,Cambridge, MA.
Research and/or Professional Experience:
Dr. Melinda H. Connor, D.D., Ph.D., AMP, FAM began her career as an engineer in the computer field, Dr. Connor was the team lead and data-com specialist in the Business Intelligence Technical Support group for IBM where she won the coveted HI-CAT award. She changed careers in the 1990’s and became an ordained Buddhist priest who has trained as a clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, drama therapist, and in a variety of integrative techniques. As a NIH sponsored T32 post doctoral fellow, Dr. Connor received her training as a research scientist at the University of Arizona’s Program in Integrative Medicine under Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Iris R. Bell. She is the former director of the Optimal Healing Research Program at the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health at the University of Arizona. Currently a faculty member at several universities, she continues to present her research around the work. She is the author of seven books.
The goal of this study was to develop the foundation for the creation of a 21st century spiritual which could be used to mitigate the effects of stress and violence. Using a multi-disciplinary team and basing the work in the music of the antebellum Negro Spiritual (a group of 6000 works), reverse engineering, extensive use of engineering principles and utilization of existing databases was done to aid in the analysis of the neurological and physiological impact of the musical form and development of an applicable theory.
