Back to top

Photograph of Melissa Hawkins

Melissa Hawkins Senior Professorial Lecturer and Associate Chair of Health Studies CAS | DHS | Health Studies

Degrees
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
M.H.S., Johns Hopkins University
B.A., Emory University

Bio
Melissa Hawkins is the Associate Chair in the Department of Health Studies at American University. Dr. Hawkins is an epidemiologist with experience in the application of public health methodologies to government and private sector challenges. Her expertise is in maternal and child health, with an interest in improving pregnancy outcomes. Currently, her research addresses the integration of Community Health Workers (CHW) in the U.S. health workforce, in both clinical and community-based teams, and examining the effectiveness of CHWs as change agents in improving health equity. She is also the co-PI on a DC Health funded project to improve health literacy in Washington DC and a DC Health funded evaluation of the Safe at Home program to prevent falls among older adults in Washington DC. Before joining American in 2015, she served as Research Director for TMNcorp, a public health communications organization, where she lead the design, conduct, and analyses for epidemiological investigations related to women, infant, and children’s health. She also served as a Senior Epidemiologist with Epidemiology International, a contract research organization, where her research focused on resolving methodological and data collection issues in study design and evaluation. Her work focuses on translating data to improve community health. Dr. Hawkins holds a Ph.D. and M.H.S. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, where she previously taught undergraduate and graduate students for fifteen years before coming to American University.
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Fall 2024

  • HLTH-340 Fundamentals of Epidemiology

Spring 2025

  • HLTH-340 Fundamentals of Epidemiology

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Selected Publications

*student research assistant

Hawkins M, Mallapareddi A, Misra DP. (2023) Social mobility and perinatal depression in Black women. Frontiers in Health Services. 3:1227874. doi: 10.3389/frhs.2023.1227874

Hawkins M, Clermont M*, McClave R, Wells D, Alston M, Snelling A. (2022) Food Security Challenges and Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Corner Store Communities in Washington, D.C. Nutrients. 14 (15), 3028. https:// doi.org/10.3390/nu14153028  

McClave R, Snelling A, Hawkins M, Belson SI (2022) Healthy Schoolhouse 2.0 strides toward equity in obesity prevention. Childhood Obesity.

Hawkins M, Belson SI, McClave R, Kohls L*, Little S*, Snelling A, (2021) Healthy Schoolhouse 2.0 health promotion intervention to reduce childhood obesity in Washington, DC: A feasibility study. Nutrients, 13. 9, 2935. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13092935

Hawkins M, Fuchs H*, Watts E, Belson SI, Snelling A. (2021) Development of a nutrition literacy survey for use among elementary school students in communities with high rates of food insecurity. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2021.1928577

Bertrand A*, Hawkins M, Cotter EW, Snelling A (2021) Interest in receiving nutrition information through social media among food security program participants in Washington DC. Preventing Chronic Diseases. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd18.200596.

Hawkins M, Misra D, Zhang L, Price M, Dailey R, Giurgescu C. (2020) Family involvement in pregnancy and psychological health among pregnant black women. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. Special Issue: Social Determinants of Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.09.012

Hawkins M & Panzera, A. (2020) Food insecurity: A key determinant of health. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. Special Issue: Social Determinants of Health. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.10.011

Hawkins M. (2020) Quarantine bubbles limit coronavirus risk and help fight loneliness. Delaware Journal of Public Health. 8:2B

Rao R, Hawkins M, Ulrich T, Gatlin G*, Mabry G*, Mishra C.* (2020) The evolving role of public health in medical education. Frontiers in Public Health. 8: 251. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00251.

Hawkins M, Watts E, Belson SI, Albershardt R, Snelling A. (2019) Design and implementation of a 5-year school based nutrition education intervention. Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior; 52(4): 421-428. doig: 10.1016/j.jneb.2019.12.005.

Invited Articles

Hawkins M. How to host a safe holiday meal during coronavirus - an epidemiologist explains her personal plans. The Conversation, November 10, 2020. https://theconversation.com/how-to-host-a-safe-holiday-meal-during-coronavirus-an-epidemiologist-explains-her-personal-plans-149144

Hawkins M. What the huge undercount in COVID-19 testing in the U.S. means. The Conversation, August 5, 2020. https://theconversation.com/what-the-huge-covid-19-testing-undercount-in-the-us-means-143796

Hawkins M. The U.S. isn’t in a second wave of coronavirus-the first wave never ended. The Conversation, June 30, 2020. https://theconversation.com/the-us-isnt-in-a-second-wave-of-coronavirus-the-first-wave-never-ended-141032 

Hawkins M. Quaranteams-when done right-limit coranavirus risk and help fight loneliness. The Conversation, June 17, 2020. https://theconversation.com/quarantine-bubbles-when-done-right-limit-coronavirus-risk-and-help-fight-loneliness-140134