Dr. Melinda Butsch Kovacic

Melinda Butsch Kovacic received her B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biology at the University of Cincinnati, her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Biochemistry, with a focus on Retrovirology at The Ohio State University, and her M.P.H. in Quantitative Methods at the School of Public Health, Harvard University. Then, she completed her Fellowship in Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute. She is now a tenured professor and associate dean of research at the College of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Cincinnati and a research professor and associate director for community outreach and engagement in the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center within the University of Cincinnati's College of Medicine. Cross-trained as a basic scientist and epidemiologist, she led and served on research teams across the translational spectrum and in the community. Her recent research has focused on engaging community representatives and groups to co-design health promotion materials. She leverages these co-designed materials in novel programming to engage citizen scientists in community environmental health studies, encourage greater participation in health and biomedical research, initiate meaningful discussions about vaccines, motivate community members to get recommended cancer screenings, and train faculty, staff, and trainees about best practices for community outreach.