Melyssa Tsai O’Brien joined the Johnson Center in 2014 and currently serves as a research manager. In this role, she plans, manages, and conducts community-based research and evaluation. Projects under Melyssa’s management tend to focus on highlighting and reducing racial/ethnic, health, economic, and educational inequities. She hopes her work informs strategic decisions made by philanthropic partners, including foundations, nonprofits, government, and the people who are served, and advances equity in communities.

Previously, Melyssa worked on neighborhood health research projects at the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Before that, she spent several years working for the Department of Veterans Affairs Epidemiologic Research and Information Center in Seattle, Washington, coordinating health and environmental studies of Veterans and their families.

Melyssa holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Occidental College in Los Angeles, California and a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.