Dr. McCleery received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Kent State University, and completed postdoctoral training in cognition, schizophrenia, and lifespan developmental psychopathology at UCLA.  She joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Manitoba in July 2025, and she was previously a faculty member in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa. Her program of research has focused on cognitive and socio-emotional predictors of community functioning in people with schizophrenia and related conditions. She uses a multi-modal approach, including performance-based and electrophysiological research methods. Dr. McCleery's research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation, and Alkermes. 

In her spare time, she enjoys hanging out with her dogs, road trips (with the dogs),paddling around in a kayak (with the dogs), camping (with the dogs), and puttering about on a motorcycle (sadly, without the dogs).

Research areas

• Schizophrenia and psychotic-spectrum disorders

• Severe and persistent mental illness

• Social and non-social cognition

• Clinical and functional outcomes

• Lifespan developmental psychopathology