Marsha R. Mailick, PhD

Position title: Emeritus Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education

Marsha Mailick, PhD

PhD, Brandeis University
Vaughan Bascom and Elizabeth M. Boggs Professor

Contact Information

Waisman Center, Room 549
1500 Highland Avenue
Madison, WI 53705
marsha.mailick@wisc.edu
Lifespan Family Research

Research Statement

Marsha R. Mailick is emeritus vice chancellor for research and graduate education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). She received her PhD in social policy from Brandeis University and became an associate professor at Boston University before joining UW-Madison. The focus of Mailick’s research is on the life course trajectory of neurodevelopmental disorders. With support from the NIH and CDC over the past 30+ years, she studies changes in the behavioral phenotype of specific neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, fragile X syndrome (FXS), and Down syndrome during adolescence, adulthood, and old age. In addition, she studies how the family environment affects the development of individuals with diagnoses during these stages of life, and reciprocally how their parents and siblings are affected. Her current research includes a 22-year longitudinal study of autism during adolescence and adulthood, a decade-long study of family adaptation to FXS, and several research projects on demographically-representative samples of parents of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. She recently completed an epidemiological study of the premutation of FXS and a 20-year follow up of a cohort of older adults with Down syndrome, examining how the family environment predicts outcomes in midlife and old age. Mailick’s research incorporates epidemiological methods, biomarkers, and genetics, as well as social and psychological approaches, and analyzes electronic health records to advance knowledge about the health phenotype of FXS and autism.  Together, these studies offer specific insights about neurodevelopmental disorders across the life course, and the impacts on families.

Selected Publications

Pubmed