July 2021

After serving for 12 years as the director of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR), and 29 years as a faculty member in the UC Davis Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dr. Joy Melnikow has retired from the University of California. Anthony Jerant, M.D. and Professor and Chair of Community and Family Medicine, has stepped in as Interim Director of CHPR in her stead.

Over her illustrious career, Dr. Melnikow became a nationally recognized leader in health services research, including appointments on the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, the National Institutes of Health’s Health Delivery and Methodologies Integrated Review Group, and as the vice chair for public health for the California Health Benefits Review Program. She plans to keep her hand in CHPR research as a professor emeritus and also continue serving as the first UC Davis member of the U.S. Community Preventive Services Task Force.

Dr. Jerant, as a core faculty member with CHPR for many years, already has been leveraging his clinical, research, teaching, administrative, and leadership expertise to execute CHPR’s mission. His research spans mental health, cancer screening disparities, chronic illness self-care, patient engagement in care, clinician-patient relationships, and diversity of the physician workforce. In 2014, he received the C. John Tupper Prize for Excellence in Teaching, UC Davis School of Medicine’s highest teaching award. He began his service as Interim Director of CHPR in July.

CHPR is grateful for Dr. Melnikow’s leadership over the last 12 years and welcomes Dr. Jerant in his new role with the Center. Congratulations to both Drs. Melnikow and Jerant!