Melissa Hector-Greene, MD, PhD

Melissa was born and raised on the sunny island of Jamaica. She worked briefly as a high school teacher in Kingston, before deciding to follow her dream of becoming a physician-scientist. After studying Biochemistry at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, she worked as a lab tech/manager in a cancer lab in Boston. She considers herself a Bostonian at heart. She migrated south to Duke University where she earned an MD and PhD in Pharmacology and Molecular Cancer Biology. There, she accidentally became a vascular biologist. At the same time, as a medical student, she discovered her love of all things cardiac anesthesia.

At WashU, she is in the ASAP Residency Research Track and has successfully completed her fellowship in cardiothoracic anesthesiology. She is currently in the dedicated research phase of her program, where she hopes to blaze the trail for anesthesiologists participating in life-saving basic and translational cardiovascular research. Her current project focuses on uncovering the mechanisms of inherited dilated cardiomyopathies, with the goal of developing precision medical therapies that extend and improve the quality of life for heart failure patients. She is a big proponent of interdisciplinary and team science, and enjoys her current collaborations with cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, biophysicists, and informaticians.

Outside of work, Melissa loves to travel and learn about diverse cultures, and hopes one to day to visit every continent. She is a tennis enthusiast and has been to all four Grand Slams. She’s always up for a game, as long as it’s >50F and not actively precipitating. She also likes to garden, paint, and spend time with her husband Shanti and seven-year-old daughter Gabi.