Dr. Melissa Salmon is the Applied Research Lead at Focal Research. She has specialized in the field of gambling studies for 10 years, with a background in psychological research and knowledge mobilization to guide her work. Throughout her career, she has led several research and evaluation initiatives focused on preventing and reducing gambling-related harms, and works with a variety of national and international stakeholders in the gambling field to achieve this common goal. At Focal, Melissa leads and supports a number of applied research projects, with a focus on disseminating this impactful work to inform safer gambling programming and help close the gap between research and practice.