Dear Colleagues,
I am excited to share that Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody has been named executive dean of the UNC School of Medicine.
Dr. Meltzer-Brody has served as the Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry as well as the director of the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders since 2019.
Dr. Meltzer-Brody has worked for UNC-Chapel Hill for more than 20 years. She advocates for innovation and transformation in mental health care and leads efforts across North Carolina to improve mental health resources across the state. This includes the development of a statewide virtual care presence in partnership with UNC Health entities across North Carolina to increase access to mental health care. Additionally, she is an internationally recognized physician-scientist focused on perinatal depression. She founded the UNC Perinatal Psychiatry Program in 2004, and her research has focused on epidemiologic and biological predictors of perinatal depression as well as innovative treatment approaches. She has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, PCORI, foundations, and industry sponsored clinical trials, including serving as the academic principal investigator for the first FDA approved medication for postpartum depression.
She has long been an institutional leader as well, launching the Taking Care of Our Own program and the UNC Health Well-Being initiatives that have helped to guide our system’s approach to promoting joy in medicine. Her leadership was also instrumental in the partnership with the State of North Carolina that led to the opening of UNC Health’s Youth Behavioral Health hospital in Butner.
Her work has been recognized by receiving the UNC System O. Max Gardner Award in 2020 and the NIH Clinical Center Distinguished Clinical Research Scholar and Educator in Residence in 2023.
As executive dean, Dr. Meltzer-Brody will report to me and lead the research and education missions for the UNC School of Medicine. She also will co-lead the clinical mission, providing vision, leadership and support to enable the SOM to be the nation’s leading public school of medicine.
Dr. Meltzer-Brody will continue as chair of psychiatry through March 31, and an interim chair will be named soon.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Meltzer-Brody on her new role.
Sincerely,
Cristy Page, MD, MPH
Chief Academic Officer, UNC Health
President, UNC Health Enterprises