Melissa McPheeters, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Dr. McPheeters received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003, and then spent time at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Michigan, before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt in 2007. During her time at Vanderbilt, Dr. McPheeters developed and directed the AHRQ-funded Evidence-based Practice Center until 2016.  The EPC had a particular focus on maternal and child health topics and on the development of methods for incorporating non-RCT evidence and for stakeholder engagement. During this time, she also served as director of the Epidemiology track of the master’s degree in public health program.

In 2016, Dr. McPheeters moved to the Tennessee Department of Health as an assistant commissioner and founding director of the Office of Informatics and Analytics. There, she developed the State’s data-driven response to the opioid epidemic and was PI for two CDC-funded grants and a Bureau of Justice Assistance grant on addressing opioid use and overdose.

In 2019 she returned to Vanderbilt as a Research Professor of Health Policy and Biomedical Informatics, and the Co-Director of the Center for Improving the Public’s Health Using Informatics. Dr. McPheeters is leading a program designed to incorporate genomics seamlessly into clinical practice at Vanderbilt, and is developing a course in public health informatics for the MPH program. She particularly focuses on work that sits at the intersection of healthcare and applied public health.