Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH is the Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also directs the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders. As Chair, Dr. Meltzer-Brody directs one of the largest public university departments of psychiatry in the United States and collaborates with UNC Health and the state of North Carolina on broad based initiatives to improve mental health.

She is a passionate advocate for innovation and transformation of mental health care. She has also served in leadership roles in physician and health care worker mental health and well-being in the School of Medicine and UNC Health. Dr. Meltzer-Brody is an internationally recognized physician-scientist in perinatal depression. Her research investigates the epidemiologic and biological predictors of perinatal depression and has taken her across the globe. She leads the MOMS GENES study—the largest global genetic study of postpartum depression using app-based tools. She also served as the academic PI for the novel psychopharmacologic clinical trials developing the first FDA approved medication for postpartum depression (brexanolone).

Dr. Meltzer-Brody received the 2020 O Max Gardner award, a UNC System Award (17 universities) for the highest faculty honor. She is also the recipient of the 2019 American Psychiatric Association Alexandra Symonds Award in Women’s Mental Health. She was recently named to the 2021 Forbes–The Visionary List: Women Over 50 Shaping the Future of Science, Technology and Art and the Forbes List of ‘Women over 50 Working to Improve our Collective Mental Health”. She was also ranked in 2021 by Expertscape, as the number one expert in the world for postpartum depression. Most, recently, in June 2022, she was named to the Forbes list of 16 Healthcare Innovators You Should Know.