Melissa Smallwood (M.S. 2021, M.A. 2016) is a Science and Technology Policy researcher with a background in neuroscience, psychology, social science, and disability studies. She is interested in how disability and healthcare justice issues intersect with emerging technologies, political trends, and dominant paradigms in medicine and academia. Prior to the global disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Smallwood was interested in the tensions between patient advocate groups and the medical establishment—a subject with which many more people are now being forced to grapple.
Smallwood was introduced to the Threatcasting methodology through Brian David Johnson’s lab at Arizona State University, where she worked with a group to forecast a range of potential outcomes of COVID-19 and to apply the lessons of the pandemic to anticipatory policy-making moving forward. She decided to use this approach to specifically look at Long COVID—an under-reported public health issue with massive societal implications. The findings of this project form the basis for Smallwood’s debut book, The Future of Long COVID. Smallwood currently works with software that supports the development of emerging technologies, as well as being an independent researcher and activist focused on Long COVID, COVID mitigation, and other justice issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.