Melissa Deer, M.D.
Undergraduate: University of Wisconsin, Madison
Medical School : University of Minnesota
Melissa graduated from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and is originally from Madison, WI. Her pre-medicine life included teaching at an urban American Indian K-8 school in Milwaukee, playing piano, and studying sociology at UW-Madison. Her focus in medical school included assisting underrepresented minority students in matriculation to medical school and fostering the development of a relationship between the University of Minnesota and the large urban American Indian community in Minneapolis.
During residency, Melissa was awarded a SAMHSA Minority Fellowship from the American Psychiatric Association. Using grant money from the award, Melissa embarked on a project to bring new artwork into our clinic at St Vincent de Paul. She worked with several local artists to commission artwork that reflects both the diversity of our patients' backgrounds and the healing mission of our clinic. In keeping with her commitment to working with minority populations in medicine, Melissa also collaborated with her combined classmate Shayna Walker and colleagues from the Department of Psychiatry to present a Grand Rounds on cross-cultural issues in psychiatry, and cultural humility in medicine. During her third year of residency, she created a psychiatry clinic at the local San Diego American Indian Health Center, and continued to work there during her fourth and fifth years of residency.
Melissa now works as Chief Medical Officer, overseeing both medical and behavioral health departments, at San Diego American Indican Health Center.
