Melissa MacKay
Assistant Professor
PhD, MPH (Guelph)
melissam@uoguelph.ca
Office: Population Medicine (Bldg 174)-Rm 208
Profile
Dr. Melissa MacKay is an assistant professor in public health in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph. She holds an MPH and PhD in Public Health from the University of Guelph.
MacKay is a public health scholar and practitioner with extensive experience in health communication, knowledge mobilization and public health education. Her career includes roles in academia, local public health units, non-profit organizations, government and private-sector consultancies. She previously served as a faculty member in Interdisciplinary Studies at Conestoga College and as an Instructor in the Master of Public Health program at the University of Guelph.
MacKay completed two postdoctoral fellowships. Her first fellowship was at the University of Guelph in the Health by Design Lab, focusing on public health communication competencies, climate adaptation in the built environment and health information assessment. Her second fellowship at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) explored the responsible and trustworthy use of generative AI in public health. During her doctoral and postdoctoral work, MacKay received a Population Medicine Scholarship for Student Excellence, a National Collaborating Centres for Public Health Knowledge Translation Student Award and a Mitacs Accelerate Postdoctoral Award.
Research Interests
MacKay’s research interests span health, crisis and risk communication; the governance and implementation of generative AI in public health; and public health pedagogy. Her work aims to enhance public trust through effective communication, policy and health promotion. She explores crisis and risk communication through the lenses of trust, transparency and engagement with diverse communities, particularly via social media.
She also investigates competency-based approaches in public health and has contributed to the development of key frameworks, including the Public Health Communication Competency Framework and the Core Competencies for Public Health in Canada Version 2.0. MacKay examines governance strategies to ensure the trustworthiness and responsible use of generative AI in public health and its potential to tailor health messages for diverse populations. Her work addresses the challenges of misinformation in health communication and emphasizes knowledge mobilization to ensure research findings inform public health policy and practice. She is also interested in advancing public health education and work-integrated learning to support competency development.
Her interdisciplinary approach combines evidence synthesis, qualitative and mixed methods research, ensuring that her findings inform both policy and practice in public health. Her research has been supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and others.
Teaching
POPM*6560 - Practicum I
POPM*6510 - Health Promotion
POPM*6590 - Practicum II
Prospective Students
If you’re considering graduate research in public health communication, generative AI governance, generative AI and public health applications, crisis or risk communication or social media communication, MacKay would be pleased to hear from you. Please reach out via email with a brief introduction, your research interests and a copy of your CV or resume. Inquiries from prospective students passionate about applied public health research are always welcome. Undergraduate students interested in thesis supervision or independent study with aligned research interests are also encouraged to reach out.
Publications
Find MacKay’s current list of publications on Google Scholar and PubMed.
