Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH is the Director of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research and Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, Davis. She serves on the executive committee for the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is a member of the US Preventive Services Task Force. She received her MD from UC San Francisco and her MPH in epidemiology from UC Berkeley. She completed her residency in Family Medicine at the University of Massachusetts, worked for the Indian Health Service, and was on the faculty of MetroHealth Medical Center/Case Western University before coming to UC Davis in 1992.

Her research focuses on cancer prevention, women’s health, particularly in regard to decision making and patient preferences, comparative effectiveness, and cost effectiveness. With funding by private foundations, the American Cancer Society, the California Breast Cancer Research Program, and the National Cancer Institute, she has pursued research on effectiveness, preferences, decision making, and cost-effectiveness of preventive interventions related primarily to breast and cervical cancer.