Michelle McKerral

Michelle McKerral, Ph.D. is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and Full Professor in the Department of Psychology at Université de Montréal. She has been the Department’s Chair since 2018 and was previously Associate Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies at the Faculty or Arts and Sciences from 2012 to 2017. Dr. McKerral was also Director of the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Neuropsychology from 2007 to 2011. She has been a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal (CRIR) since 2001, where she was a Scientific Site Director from 2012 to 2016. She is also affiliated to CerebrUM and CIRCA, two scientific groups at Université de Montréal that respectively promote research and training in cognitive and computational neuroscience and neuropsychology, and on the brain and learning.

Dr. McKerral has been doing funded research work with individuals with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) for over 25 years in a multisite interdisciplinary social and vocational rehabilitation context, as well as within the community. Her main research objectives are: (1) to gain a better understanding of the complex determinants of recovery of cerebral function and global outcome after a TBI, including mild TBI; and (2) to obtain data on rehabilitation interventions for TBI to promote evidenced-based clinical practice for brain-injured individuals. More specifically, Dr. McKerral’s research focuses on enhancing TBI rehabilitation effectiveness (i.e., implementation of evidenced-based cognitive and interdisciplinary interventions and systematic outcome measurement), and monitoring recovery of cognitive function and social participation during rehabilitation and in the following years (i.e., use of mixed outcome measures: neuropsychological, brain imaging, outcomes reported by clinicians, patients, caregivers), in order to positively influence the short- and long-term outcomes of persons living with a TBI (e.g. social participation and return to work, quality of life).