Deans, Chairs and Staff

Dr. Megan L. Ranney is an emergency physician, researcher, and national advocate for innovative approaches to public health. She joined Yale in July 2023 as the Dean of the Yale School of Public Health and C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health. Dr. Ranney’s research focuses on developing, testing, and disseminating digital health interventions to prevent violence and related behavioral health problems, as well as on COVID-related risk reduction. She has held multiple national leadership roles, including Co-Founder and Senior Strategic Advisor for the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM) at the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit committed to ending the gun violence epidemic through a non-partisan public health approach, and Co-Founder of GetUsPPE, a start-up nonprofit that delivered donated personal protective equipment to those who needed it most. She is a Fellow of the fifth class of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship Program and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Opioid Abatement Trust. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. She has received numerous awards for technology innovation, public health, and research, including Rhode Island “Woman of the Year” and the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Policy Pioneer Award. A leading public voice on urgent topics in health and medicine, she offers expert analysis through testimony to Congress and guidance for non-governmental organizations. She is a frequent media commentator and author of op-eds for outlets that include the BBC, CNN, The Atlantic, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Prior to arriving at Yale, Dr. Ranney served as Deputy Dean at the Brown University School of Public Health; the Warren Alpert Endowed Professor of Emergency Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University; and the Founding Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health. She remains an adjunct faculty member at Brown University. Dr. Ranney earned her bachelor's degree in history of science, graduating summa cum laude, from Harvard University; her medical doctorate, graduating Alpha Omega Alpha, from Columbia University; and her master’s degree in public health from Brown University. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine and a fellowship in Injury Prevention Research at Brown University. She was previously a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cote d'Ivoire.

Melinda Pettigrew, PhD, is a Professor of Epidemiology. She completed a fellowship from the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women and was a Public Voices Thought Leaders Fellow. Professor Pettigrew has an international reputation in the molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases. Professor Pettigrew's research focuses on pathobionts of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts (e.g., Haemophilus influenzae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and the growing public health threat of antibiotic resistance. Her current work utilizes a combined approach involving microbiology and infectious disease epidemiology to identify factors that influence whether pathobionts asymptomatically colonize or cause diseases such as pneumonia and exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Additional projects focus on how disruptions of homeostasis in the respiratory and gastrointestinal microbiome influence colonization resistance, development of antibiotic resistance, and risk of both hospital and community acquired infections. Current projects utilize next-generation sequence technologies (e.g., whole-genome sequencing, 16S rRNA gene microbial profiling, and RNA-sequencing) to examine the complex relationships between the microbiota, antibiotic exposure, and risk of infections. She serves on the Steering and Executive Committees for the Antibiotic Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG). As the Associate Director of the Scientific Leadership Core, focusing on Diversity, Professor Pettigrew leads efforts implement and integrate principles of diversity, access, equity, and inclusion throughout the ARLG. Professor Pettigrew serves on the editorial board of mBio.