MD, MPH
Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair
Director, UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders
Location:
UNC Hospitals – Chapel Hill
UNC Mental Health Specialists – Chapel Hill
Education and Training:
B.S., Biology and Psychology, Simmons College
M.D., Northwestern University Medical School
Residency, Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center
Fellowship, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.P.H., Health Care and Prevention Program, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Summary Statement:
Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH is the Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also directs the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders and is an executive sponsor of the UNC SOM and UNC Health Well-Being initiative.
Dr. Meltzer-Brody is an internationally recognized physician-scientist in perinatal depression. Dr. Meltzer-Brody received the 2020 O Max Gardner award, a UNC System Award (17 universities) for the highest faculty honor. She is also the recipient of the 2019 American Psychiatric Association Alexandra Symonds Award in Women’s Mental Health. She was recently named to the 2021 Forbes list of “Women Over 50 Working to Improve Our Collective Mental Health. “
Dr. Meltzer-Brody founded the UNC Perinatal Psychiatry Program in 2004 and became Chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry in October 2019. Her work has focused on developing a comprehensive integrated clinical and research program in Women’s Mood Disorders across the reproductive life cycle. She investigates the epidemiologic and biological predictors of perinatal depression (PND) including genetic, neurosteroid and other neuroendocrine biomarkers as well as the impact of adverse life events. Dr. Meltzer-Brody has been the academic PI for novel clinical trials developing an effective (now FDA approved) new pharmacologic treatment for postpartum depression (brexanolone). Currently, she is the co-PI of a large PCORI grant to study psychological interventions including training non-mental health specialists for perinatal depression. She is also the founder and lead of the Postpartum Depression Action Towards and Treatment (PACT) Consortium, and co-PI on a smart phone app (originally named PPD ACT and now rebranded as MOM GENES) that is large scale international genetic study of PPD and postpartum. Lastly, Dr. Meltzer-Brody has been collaborating in perinatal depression initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa in Malawi and Zambia.
