Specialty Areas
Teaching
Consulting
Research
Clinical Services
About Dr. McKelley
Biography
Translating psychological science into useful practice.
Ryan A. McKelley, Ph.D. is a Licensed Psychologist, Professor of Clinical/Counseling Psychology, and Program Coordinator for the Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Minor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He earned a B.S. in Organizational Communication from Northwestern University, and a M.A. in Educational Psychology and Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.
He regularly teaches courses on psychopharmacology, additive technology, health psychology, behavior modification, abnormal psychology, group counseling, and men and masculinities. He has taught summer sessions abroad in England, Ireland, Spain, China, Costa Rica, and Thailand. He previously served as the Chair and Associate Chair of the Psychology Department.
Dr. McKelley has co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, mostly in the area of men and masculinities. Specific research and presentation topics include men’s emotions, help-seeking, alternative treatment models, non-traditional work and family roles, fatherhood, men and depression, marketing mental health, and the placebo effect in biofeedback.
In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. McKelley has provided clinical services in a community mental health center, three university counseling centers, and a pain clinic. He currently has a small tele-therapy practice providing personal coaching and clinical services, and is a workshop presenter with Lyra Health.
He’s been a weekly discussant on the internet radio show and iTunes podcast The Secret Lives of Men (2009-2013), and is Past-President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinities, a division of the American Psychological Association.
Dr. McKelley has been interviewed extensively in the area of men’s mental health and changing gender roles. In the last few years, he has been quoted in outlets including the New York Times, USA Today, ABC News, Upworthy, Vox Media, and local papers in U.S. and Australian cities. He has also appeared on several radio stations such as National Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ABC Radio News, has a TEDx talk on social connection and masculinity, interview on masculinity and culture on the Here We Are science podcast and La Crosse Thinkers podcast, and teach-in presentations on rape culture and toxic masculinity.