Education
ScD, Harvard School of Public Health, 2008
MPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2002
BA, University of Rochester, 1998
Overview
Michele R. Decker, ScD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She directs the Women's Health & Rights Program of the Center for Public Health & Human Rights, and co-leads the Gender Equity and Justice thematic area of the Alliance for a Healthier World, a Johns Hopkins University Signature Initiative. A social epidemiologist by training, her research focuses on social determinants of women's health and gender equity with an emphasis on gender-based violence (e.g., sexual assault, intimate partner violence, sex trafficking), its prevention, and its implications for sexual and reproductive health (e.g., STI/HIV, unintended pregnancy). Much of this work involves marginalized populations including adolescents, urban women, and those involved in transactional sex or sex work. Her work includes evaluation of empowerment to promote health, clinic- and community-based interventions to mitigate the health and social impact of violence, as well as primary research to understand the mechanisms by which violence influences sexual and reproductive health including HIV risk. She blends large-scale quantitative investigations with qualitative methods. She works domestically as well as globally.