Melissa Margolis, PhD
Melissa Margolis is a senior measurement scientist at NBME. Over the past 25 years, her research has focused on test validity, assessment and instrument design, and performance-based assessment, including early developmental work on projects that subsequently were implemented into the USMLE® sequence as Step 2 Clinical Skills and the Step 3 computer-based patient management simulations.
Melissa has also done extensive work on the assessment of skills and behaviors, with particular focus on the domains of professionalism, teamwork, health systems science, and, most recently, novel approaches to assessing diagnostic and management reasoning. She also contributed significantly to the development of a novel workplace-based assessment system used to provide developmental feedback and inform progression decisions about pediatrics residents. Her extensive research contributions have resulted in more than 150 scholarly publications and professional conference presentations on a variety of medical education, assessment and measurement-related topics.
In addition to her research activities, Melissa has provided consulting services focused on evaluation and improvement of high-stakes assessments to the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine; the American Osteopathic Board of Orthopedic Surgeons; the College of Family Physicians of Canada; the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Radiologists, and Surgeons in the United Kingdom; and the National Medical Examination Center in China.
A Philadelphia native, Melissa stayed close to home and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from Ursinus College and Villanova University, respectively, and her doctorate in educational psychology from Temple University.