Kristen Mueller

Kristen Mueller, PhD, is the Senior Director, Scientific Program of the Melanoma Research Alliance. An immunologist by training, Kristen joined the Melanoma Research Alliance in 2017 with more than 15 years of experience in biomedical research and scientific publishing. She currently oversees MRA’s research grants program, including the solicitation, peer review, and oversight of approximately $10 to $13 million per year in funded programs. She is also responsible for coordinating MRA’s Annual Scientific Retreat.

Kristen currently co-chairs the Program Committee and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Health Research Alliance (HRA), a collaborative member organization of nonprofit research funders that is committed to maximizing the impact of biomedical research to improve human health.

Prior to joining the Melanoma Research Alliance, Kristen was a Senior Editor at the journal Science. At Science, her primary responsibilities included orchestrating the peer review process for manuscripts covering subjects such as cancer immunology and immunotherapy, infectious disease and vaccines, and also attracting the best research in these fields to Science.

Kristen received her BA in biology from Carleton College and her PhD in immunology from the University of Minnesota. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.