August 7, 2023
Prevent Child Abuse NC (PCANC) is proud to welcome Melissa Clepper-Faith as Policy Director. Clepper-Faith has an extensive background in child and family well-being as a pediatrician and continues to serve as a leader in the pediatric community. She will contribute to the Policy Team in a senior leadership role responsible for strategic planning and management oversight of PCANC’s Policy Team.
Clepper-Faith joins us from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where she served as Translational Research Program and Policy Coordinator. Her work in this position spanned across Policy, Trauma Research, Equity Research and Legislative Briefing. In April 2023, she served as co-coordinator, organizer and speaker at the Inaugural Statewide Trauma Summit. Prior to her work with FPG, Clepper-Faith worked with Chapel Hill Pediatrics and was the Founder, Practice Owner and Lead Physician of Hillsborough Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, a practice with a 1,500 patient base that she created beginning in 2009. Clepper-Faith has multiple publications relating to child and teen health and well-being topics, including Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Racial Equity, Self-Compassion and Mental Health among Transgender Adolescents, and Opioid Use Disorders.
Clepper-Faith holds her Doctor of Medicine from the University of South Florida College of Medicine, her Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Tampa. She was the recipient of multiple scholarships during her education, including a scholarship from the Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2019 relating to Maternal Family and Child Health. Clepper-Faith has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1994 and is a member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. She has previously served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Orange Charter School (2012-2013) and a Parent-Teacher Representative at Carolina Friends School in Durham.
“Melissa brings an incredible perspective to Prevent Child Abuse NC with her extensive background in pediatric health and child and family well-being policy,” said PCANC President & CEO Sharon Hirsch. “Her knowledge and expertise will be invaluable to ensuring that our policy work is thorough and intentional. We are excited to have her on our team to lead this work with a deep understanding of the importance of racial equity, ACEs and mental health in child and family well-being.”