Lewis First Non-Australian, New Zealander to Receive LIMElight Award

Melissa Lewis, PhD, associate professor of family and community medicine at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, recently became the first non-Australian or New Zealander to receive the 2017 LIMElight Award from The Leaders in Indigenous Medical Education (LIME) Network, a program of the University of Melbourne in Australia.

The LIMElight Award recognizes significant and outstanding work in the teaching of indigenous health in medical education, as well as indigenous student recruitment and support.

Lewis, who was honored for being first in the United States to develop a mandatory medical school curriculum related to indigenous health, recently traveled to Australia to receive the award and present her research findings.

Lewis became a faculty member in MU’s Department of Family and Community Medicine in 2016. Her research interest is in health care disparities within indigenous populations.

Lewis earned her doctorate of philosophy in medical family therapy from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She has received additional training from the National Institutes of Health in cardiovascular disease and indigenous health disparities.