Megan Connolly, Ph.D., is a pediatric psychologist within Children's National Hospital. She provides clinical psychology services to patients and families in the Divisions of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation. She also serves as an assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Her clinical interests include working closely with medical providers to meet with families as needs arise in order to provide early intervention services and prevent worsening challenges. Dr. Connolly is also interested in improving quality of life for patients with sickle cell disease, non-pharmacological approaches to pain management and interventions to enhance a patient and family’s confidence in managing a chronic illness. Dr. Connolly participates in psychology training as a supervisor for advanced graduate students in psychology and helps to organize training activities in hematology, oncology and blood and marrow transplantation for psychology externs and post-doctoral psychology fellows.
Dr. Connolly earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Northwestern University, where her research focused on mood disorders. As part of her Ph.D. program, she completed a psychology internship and subsequently her pediatric psychology fellowship at Children’s National from 2015 – 2018, in the Divisions of Psychology and Behavioral Health, Pain Medicine and Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Her current research interests include understanding and reducing the impact of chronic pain in sickle cell disease and exploring interventions to improve quality of life in sickle cell disease.