Mellissa Withers, MHS, PhD, is an assistant clinical professor at University of Southern California (USC) in the Institute for Global Health and leads the Global Health Program of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, a network of 45 universities in the region, where she teaches global health-related courses. Withers also works as an independent health research consultant, with research focusing on global reproductive health and women’s empowerment, including human trafficking, preventing unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDS prevention among sex workers in Asia, and engaging male partners in family planning in sub-Saharan Africa. She received a bachelor’s degree in global development with a minor in ethnic studies from University of California, Berkeley (2001), a Master of Health Science (MHS) in international health systems management from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2003), and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in community health sciences with a minor in cultural anthropology from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Fielding School of Public Health (2010).
Public Health and General Preventive Medicine
20 Questions: Beth Seltzer, MD, MPH
Beth Seltzer’s path to MD and MPH was not a straight line. She started out as a documentary filmmaker in San Francisco, where she created award-winning documentaries with a national reach, shared in creative decisions from idea to final edit, hired and supervised staff, conducted community outreach campaigns, wrote grant proposals, and managed finances. While there, she co-produced programs that garnered long list of honors such as Northern California Area Emmy Award; Gold Apple, National Educational Media Festival; Gold Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival; Best Documentary Short, Nashville Independent Film Festival; and Finalist, IDA Documentary Awards.
Beth received her MD from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, in 2003, and her MPH from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (NY) in 2008. Her residencies included general preventive medicine and public health at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and a transitional year at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown. Beth is board certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine, and is a medical consultant and writer, creating original, nonfiction works for wide audiences, including 101 Careers in Public Health, a comprehensive career guide from Springer Publishing Company, which has been endorsed as “first-rate advice” by the American Public Health Association.