After working for several years as a barrister with the law firm of Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst) in Sydney, Melissa moved to the rivers of Northern New South Wales in 2000 to establish her own law firm. The client and owner of Hinterland Legal is Melissa Begg LLB (Hons) LLM (Hons). Melissa began her professional life as a journalist, but moved to the University of Technology Sydney in 1996 after graduating with a law degree (with distinction in first class). Melissa believes that high-level legal expertise should be affordable and accessible to everyone, not just the “big ends of the city,” so she works hard to create a “level playing field” for the little guys in our community. She is also particularly involved in fair trade activities, Indigenous social justice and legal reform. Dr. Melissa Begg is a population health scientist with 30 years of experience and a long-standing commitment to developing the best possible evidence base for human health and well-being. Her early research focused on technical methods for assessing associations using correlated data (such as sibling and family studies), particularly when applied to the determinants of adult health in early life. Dr. Begg has fostered innovation in health care education, including the implementation of a major overhaul of Columbia`s Master of Public Health program, with a focus on interdisciplinary engagement, practical skill building, and leadership training for health professionals at all levels. In collaboration with colleagues in public health and social work, she helped launch a new cultural literacy training program for MPH students and wrote a manuscript of the results.
Previously, she was Vice-President, Academic Programs at Columbia University and Co-Director of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Dr. Begg holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Fairfield University and a Doctor of Science in Biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health. In addition to her expertise, Melissa completed a Master of Laws with honors in 2005, specializing in intellectual property and digital technology law. Melissa is fluent in Bahasa and is an avid traveler. Melissa Begg became Dean of the Columbia School of Social Work on September 1, 2019. It is firmly committed to the pursuit of better science for a better society through research, education, practice and collaboration. Suite 3, 26 Byron Street, Bangalow, New South Wales 2479 Select your request and enter an email address and message Throughout her career, Ms. Begg has developed and led a number of educational and career development programs to support success in interdisciplinary team science. She has led two NIH-funded diversity training programs: one for students from underrepresented groups and introducing them to careers in population health sciences; and another for underrepresented young faculty that offers advice on grant writing, career counselling, and mentorship.
In 2006, Begg received both the Presidential Award for Outstanding University-wide Teaching and the Mailman School Graduate Class Teaching Award. She also received the ASPPH/Pfizer Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2013. Over the past 15 years as an academic administrator, she has focused on building interdisciplinary scientific teams, developing innovative curricula, creating mentorship programs, and enhancing the diversity of the research workforce.