Mel Taylor is an Occupational Psychologist and Honorary Associate Professor at Macquarie University. She is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Mel’s early research experience was with the UK Ministry of Defence in Human Factors and Organisational Psychology. Since joining academia in Australia, in 2007, her research has focussesd on preparedness, response, and recovery to threats of relevance to national security. These are typically low probability, high consequence events such as natural hazards emergencies, pandemics, terrorism, and emergency animal diseases.  

Mel is a project leader in the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre; currently working in the area of flood risk communication, having recently completed a three-year project on best practice in animal emergency management.

Mel specialises in applied research, usually working with policy developers and practitioners dealing with risk and public, occupational, or organisational safety. Key areas of research interest are psychosocial response and recovery, uptake of protective behaviours, and risk communication strategies.

During the period July 2015 to November 2020 Mel convened and taught in the following units in the Masters of Organisational Psychology and Postgraduate Diploma of Business Psychology programs

Training in Organisations (PSYO919)

Teams in the Workplace (PSYO939)

Organisational Change and Development (PSYO915)

Training in Organisations (PSYO967)

Teams in the Workplace (PSYO966)

Organisational Change and Development (PSYO965)

Mel supervises students in PhD, Masters, and Honours programs. Research typically investigates protective behaviours, anticipated/actual responses, risk perception, and risk communication in one of the following risk contexts:

- natural hazards, e.g. bushfire, flood

- national security, e.g. CBRN terrorism, cybersecurity

- human disease, e.g. pandemics

- zoonotic disease, e.g. Hendra virus, ABLV

- animal emergency diseases, e.g. Equine Influenza, OJD

In addition to areas listed above, Mel's research supervision includes human behaviour in the context of the human-animal bond. e.g. animal emergency management, and also the use of social media in emergencies, and community resilience to, and recovery from disasters.

Mel is a strong advocate for community-led initiatives in emergency management. She is a member of Blue ARC Animal Ready Community, raising awareness of the need for preparedness and planning for animals in emergency management. She regularly provides media interviews and writes for practitioner magazines.

Mel is a member of the Radiation Health and Safety Advisory Council for the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), and she is a member of Australian Women in Emergency Management. Mel reviews articles and grant applications on an ad hoc basis for a number of journals and international grant awarding authorities.