Professor Mellissa Withers is an associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. She is based at the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health. She also directs the Global Health Programme for the Association of Pacific Rim Universities.

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Professor Withers’ research focuses on global reproductive health and women’s empowerment, including human trafficking, HIV/AIDS prevention and family planning. Her other research interests include community participatory research, immigrant health, mental health and gender-based violence.  She has spent several years living and/or working in developing countries in Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Withers is the editor of two books: Global Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health Across the Lifecourse, and Global Health Leadership: Case Studies from the Asia-Pacific. She is also on the editorial board of five international global health journals. 

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Professor Withers received a doctorate in community health sciences from the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health in 2009. She also earned her Master of Health Sciences degree in the health systems management track from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of International Health. She graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in global development.