Melinda M. Pettigrew became the eighth dean of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) in December 2023 and has led the school with a steadfast focus on its mission and values while navigating complex and evolving higher education and public health environments.

In March 2025, Dean Pettigrew was elected to the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) Board of Directors and began serving a three-year term. In this national leadership role, she contributes to the board’s work to serve the ASPPH membership, set association policies and strategies, and provide fiduciary oversight. She was appointed as chair of the ASPPH Education Advisory Committee, effective March 2026. In May 2025, she oversaw a major milestone: SPH graduated its first class of undergraduate public health majors, marking an important expansion of the school’s academic footprint.

Prior to joining the University of Minnesota SPH, Dean Pettigrew was the Anna M. R. Lauder Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. At Yale, Pettigrew established a long track record of developing, financing, and launching innovative educational programs including the US Health Justice Concentration, Public Health Modeling Concentration, Climate Change and Health Concentration, and a hybrid executive MPH program for working professionals. She also held several senior leadership positions including interim dean, deputy dean, senior associate dean for academic affairs, and deputy Title IX coordinator.

Pettigrew’s research focuses on the epidemiology of respiratory tract infections, the microbiome, and the One Health threat of antibiotic resistance. Her work investigates bacterial pathogens that are frequently resistant to antibiotics and cause both community-acquired and hospital-acquired infections. She has published over 80 peer reviewed articles in high impact journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, JAMA Pediatrics, and Clinical Infectious Diseases. She is recognized nationally for her leadership within the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG), a National Institutes of Health–sponsored initiative that advances a national clinical research agenda to address the public health crisis of antimicrobial resistance.

Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and private foundations. She serves on the editorial board of the high impact microbiology journal mBio. She is a member of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society and was elected a fellow of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering in 2023. A highly regarded educator, she received both the Yale School of Public Health Distinguished Teaching Award and the Inspiring Yale Award in 2018.

Pettigrew received a PhD in the epidemiology of microbial diseases from Yale University and a BA in biology from Grinnell College. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan before joining the Yale School of Public Health faculty in 2002.

Office Staff

Ryan Thorsen
Executive Assistant to the Dean

612-625-1179
sphdean@umn.edu