Melissa Akers, MPH

Melissa Akers serves as the Director of the Seligman Research Team at UCSF’s Action Research Center for Health Equity (ARC). In this role, she works closely with Dr. Hilary Seligman and a growing team to oversee a large portfolio of Food is Medicine programs, research, and policy initiatives focused on addressing food insecurity and improving health. A member of the team since early 2015, she helped start Vouchers 4 Veggies – EatSF, one of the nation’s largest and longest running produce prescription programs, where she played an instrumental role in the design, successful implementation, evaluation, and rapid scaling of EatSF in San Francisco and beyond. With the Seligman Research Team serving as PPR Services Lead for the USDA’s GusNIP program, she now focuses much of her time on providing technical assistance and support to organizations developing or operating produce prescription programs in their own communities. A true Californian, Melissa received her BA from the University of California Santa Barbara and her master’s degree in public health from the University of California Davis. She is also Certified in Public Health (CPH).