The mission of the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine research is to expand the possibilities of health through discovering the determinants of health and developing evidence to improve health.
The department primarily focuses on these research areas:
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- Global Health
- Health Professions Workforce
- Primary Care Research
- Quality Improvement in Health Care
- Health Disparities
- Infection Prevention
- Cancer Epidemiology & Prevention
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- Reproductive & Women's Health
- Occupational Health
- Environmental Health
- Life Course Epidemiology & Health
- Emergency Preparedness & Disaster
- Substance Abuse
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I seek to understand and improve the impact of reproductive health on child health and development. Since 1991, I have conducted research in natural family planning, natural procreative technology, reproductive epidemiology, and life course epidemiology, including serving as principal investigator or co-investigator for five preconception cohort studies. I am currently principal investigator for the Utah Children's Project, a cohort to investigate child health outcomes in relation to early life exposures (back to conception) and genetics; and one of the principal investigators for the participation of UCP in the NIH Environmental influences and Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) consortium.
Melanie develops the department’s research infrastructure and directs central pre- and post-award operations. She works closely with the Vice Chair for Research and the Research and Innovation Committee to set strategic goals and success metrics for research activities.