Dr. Melissa Stephens, MD
Associate Dean of GME and Population Health
William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Melissa Stephens, MD earned her Bachelor of Arts in Biology with Distinction at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, where she also earned her Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in '1998. She went on to complete a residency in Family Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), where she served as Chief Resident in 2001. She then remained at the University of Kansas, where she acted as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, Medical Director for Student Health in the KUMC Student Health Clinic, and a research investigator in the KU Family Medicine Research Division. She later served as a faculty member in graduate medical education at the Goppert-Trinity Family Medicine Residency Program in Kansas City (now Research Family Medicine).
ln addition to her academic career, Dr. Stephens has spent more than a decade in clinical practice in both rural and urban settings. ln 2005, Dr. Stephens began caring for an underserved patient population located in rural central Missouri, where she also spent time in service to the National Health Service Corp. ln 2010, Dr. Stephens joined Valley Medical Center, the most comprehensive, multi-specialty physician practice between Spokane, Washington, and Boise, ldaho. ln 2012, she relocated to the Gulf Coast, where she worked as a Staff Physician in Primary Care, as well as served as a Medical Director for the Ready Care Clinic for Singing River Health System.
In 2013, she became an Adjunct Clinical Professor with the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She joined the faculty full-time in 2015 as an Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences in the Department of Family Medicine. She currently serves as the Associate Dean of Graduate Medical Education and Population Health at the medical school.
Dr. Stephens has always felt a strong sense of commitment to serving the communities within which she has lived. Over the years, she has served on the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity, The Place at the Lake (Domestic Violence Shelter), and the Northwest Children's Home (Residential Treatment Center for abused, neglected, and abandoned children and youth in need of mental health services).
Currently, Dr. Stephens serves on the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians Foundation Board of Trustees (President); the Children's Advocacy Centers of Mississippi Board of Directors; the Office of Mississippi Physician Workforce Advisory Board and Executive Committee; the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners National Faculty; and the Schools Against Vaping Advisory Council.
Dr. Stephens is a Diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
