Melissa A Simon, MD, MPH

Dr. Simon’s primary research interests are aimed at promoting health equity and eliminating health disparities among low income, medically underserved women across the lifespan. Integrating health services research with social epidemiologic models, Dr. Simon’s research focuses on interventions (such as patient navigation and community health outreach workers) that aim to reduce and eliminate such disparities. Within this context, Dr. Simon prefers to leverage culture and community to achieve these goals and thereby integrates community based participatory research framework into her work. She also has a strong portfolio of workforce development programs including the world’s first healthcare pipeline development free massive open online course, “Career 911: Your Future Job in Medicine and Healthcare” on the Coursera platform. She is the founding director of the Center for Health Equity Transformation and the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative. She is a former member of the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).  She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the Association of American Physicians (AAP). She currently is a member of the NAM Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice and the Roundtable for the Promotion of Health Equity.  She also serves as an Advisory Committee member to the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health.

Education

• MPH: University of Illinois at Chicago (1996)
• MD: Rush Medical College (2000)

Postgraduate Training

• Resident: Yale-New Haven Hospital, (2004)
• Fellow: Northwestern University, McGaw Medical Center (Northwestern Memorial Hospital), (2006)

Certification

• Board Certification: Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology