Education:
B.S. Microbiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, 1987
Ph.D. Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD, 1997
Academic Activities:
Melanie de Boer is appointed Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. Dr. de Boer received her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Arizona and Ph.D. in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene. She comes to us from the WHO/Pan American Health Organization where she served as field epidemiologist in Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases. She has over 20 years of field experience primarily in Latin America and the US-Mexico border region but also Asia where she completed her thesis characterizing heterosexual risk factors for HIV transmission. Prior to her term with PAHO, she served as research fellow with the CDC where she continued her research in HIV transmission and clinical treatment studies of infected women.
Her current research interests include the intersection of wildlife diseases, infrastructure development and the re-emergence of infectious diseases; the implementation of the International Health Regulations to detect those pathogens; and the development of advanced epidemiological methods. She continues to collaborate with the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca, Mexico and the Mexican Secretary of Health assessing the root causes in the decline of malaria rates in that country. She serves as the epidemiologist in research studies focusing on pelvic health and the epidemiology of trauma related injuries in the Galveston County region.
Her teaching responsibilities include PHS 6333 Epidemiological Methods and Public Health in the Community (PMCU 4001) as well as facilitating several Process Based Learning courses in the College of Medicine. She is the chair on several MPH capstones focusing on emerging infectious diseases, and serves on multiple doctoral candidates dissertation committees. During her tenure with PAHO in Mexico, she was mentor and committee member to numerous doctoral candidates at the National Institute of Public Health and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
She was recently named the Director for WHO/PAHO collaborating Center for Training in International Health and serves as Co-Director for the Public Health Track for Medical Students. Dr. de Boer is UN certified bilingual in Spanish and speaks basic Dutch, French and Thai.