About the Medical College of Wisconsin Office of Global Health

Faculty

Laura Cassidy, MS, PhD
Associate Dean for Global Health
lcassidy@mcw.edu | (414) 955-8546

Dr. Cassidy’s journey to MCW began in Pittsburgh, where she grew up. While working fulltime at the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Dr. Cassidy earned the MS in Biostatistics and a PhD in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology while working as a full time research coordinator in the Department of Biostatistics. Shortly after receiving her PhD, she was awarded a grant through the Emergency Medical Services for Children to design a National Trauma Registry for Children. Dr. Keith Oldham, MCW, Professor of Surgery and Chief of Pediatric Surgery was on her advisory panel and in 2016 recruited her to MCW Department of Surgery as an Associate Professor and Director of Surgical Clinical Outcomes Research in general pediatric surgery and the pediatric surgical divisions of urology, cardiothoracic surgery, otolaryngology, orthopedic, plastic surgery, and anesthesia.

She transitioned to the College’s Institute for Health & Equity in 2011 when she became Director of the PhD Program in Public and Community Health and the Founding Director of the Division of Epidemiology and as of recent, Epidemiology and Social Sciences. She became full Professor with Tenure in 2014 and currently serves also serves as the Institute’s Research Director. In 2017, Dr. Cassidy was chosen for the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) Program for Women. An outcome of that program was her founding the State’s first Master of Science in Global Health Equity degree program and currently serves as its Director.

Dr. Cassidy’s research experience is diverse, including managing a bladder cancer screening program, evaluating community health departments, a Mid-Atlantic AIDS education training grant, health effects of radiation exposure in Russian workers, Native American health, in addition to clinical outcomes research and registry development. She has been the PI on multiple federally funded grants including NIH, RWJ and NIJ, and has over 100 publications.  

She has had many global collaborations including a remote hospital in Haiti to evaluate data collection methods in that environment and Nigeria to implement a web-based trauma registry that currently collects a culturally sensitive, minimal data set from multiple hospitals. She is an Examiner, at the Uganda-based Makerere University School of Public Health and maintains partnerships in Rwanda with Health Builders and Ageis Trust where she serves as Chair of Steering Committee on Mental Health in Rwanda. Through this work, she gained valuable experience with complex data compiled from challenging and unique and diverse resourced environments. From 2011-2020, with the continuous learning opportunities at MCW she has been able to build upon and redesign the Public and Community Health PhD program to better foster academic learning and independent research including diversifying its matriculants.

Through COVID-19 pandemic, she has served as an Epidemiology Advisor to Dr. Raymond, a member of the WI Covid-19 Leadership Core Steering Committee, an advisor to the Milwaukee Restaurant COVID-19 Health and Safety, and the Wisconsin Performing Arts COVID-19 Health and Safety Advisor. She received the Marcus Performing Arts Center's Dynamic Leadership Award for the extraordinary service, guidance, and volunteerism she provided the arts sector during the pandemic, the Wisconsin Public Health Association’s 2021 Distinguished Service to Public Health Award, and an Excellence in Journalism Gold award for Best Pandemic Story in Audio for the CTSI Discovery Radio Episode on The Epidemiology of Disease: COVID-19 which also featured, her colleague, Dr. Kirsten Beyer.

Focused on all four missions of the College including successful grant writing, manuscript development, and a mentor to medical students, residents, fellows, graduate and doctoral students and post-doc fellows and faculty, Dr. Cassidy became Associate Dean for Global Health in July 2022.

Stephen Hargarten, MD, MPH
Founding Associate Dean for Global Health
hargart@mcw.edu | (414) 805-6454

In January 2010, the Medical College of Wisconsin named Stephen Hargarten, MD, as associate dean of the Office of Global Health. Dr. Hargarten is also professor of Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Hargarten’s international experience began in medical school when he selected a two month elective clerkship in Nicaragua. In 1980, he volunteered at the Tom Dooley Heritage Hospital in Thailand, caring for refugees from Laos. He served on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Indochina Refugee Relief Fund and also on the Board of Tom Dooley Heritage. As an outcome of his MPH at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Hargarten has extensively investigated US citizen deaths (initially Peace Corps Volunteers) that occur outside the United States and is a leading expert in this area of global health.

Along with colleagues in emergency medicine and in collaboration with the Center for International Health, a collaborative of several institutions, including the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University, Dr. Hargarten has served as co-principal investigator on large emergency medicine services (EMS) training projects in Poland, Croatia, Latvia, and China.

Currently, Dr. Hargarten serves on the Violence and Injury Prevention Mentoring Committee for the World Health Organization and serves on the board of directors of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT). Dr. Hargarten has a long history of extramurally funded research in injury prevention, and has published over 100 research articles, editorials and chapters.

An alumnus of the Medical College, Dr. Hargarten joined the faculty in 1989. He completed an internship at the Gorgas Hospital in Panama, and previously served as a staff physician in the emergency departments at St. Joseph’s, St. Mary’s and St. Luke’s Hospitals before joining the College and the staff at the County Hospital and Froedtert Hospital. Dr. Hargarten completed his MPH at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene in 1984 and is a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars which is a honor for those who have shown distinction and excellence in their field of study.

He is an examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine and has received numerous awards in recognition for teaching excellence, research in injury prevention, and public service. He is the founding president of the Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research, and a past president of the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine, as well as having served on many expert committees and advisory task forces. Most recently Dr. Hargarten was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. In 2014, Dr. Hargarten became the Director of the Milwaukee Global Health Consortium (formerly Center for International Health) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He currently serves as a senior advisor to the Office of Global Health through the development of its next strategic plan, mentorship of residents/fellows in the GME Global Health Scholars academic enrichment program, director of the Dr. Elaine Kohler Summer Academy of Global Health Research, Course Director for the Master of Science in Global Health Equity Thesis Preparation, faculty lead with partnerships in Belize and Poland and the Network for the Prevention of Gun Violence in the Americas.

Tifany Frazer, MPH
Director

tfrazer@mcw.edu | (414) 955-4763

Tifany Frazer joined the Office of Global Health in September 2010. Tifany works closely with the Associate Dean for Global Health, in developing a sustainable platform of local and international partnerships to support the education, research, clinical, public and community health training of the College’s faculty and trainees. Prior to developing the Office of Global Health, Tifany served as a program manager in the College’s Department of Pediatrics, Center for the Advancement of Underserved Children where she administered programs in community-based pediatric resident graduate education, clinic-based early literacy promotion and community academic partnerships that addressed pediatric oral health care access, medical/legal collaborations and faith-based emergency preparedness in Milwaukee. Prior to coming to the College, Tifany worked in three different continents holding international positions with the United States Peace Corps, and United Nations program of UNAIDS, and UNICEF in El Salvador, Peru and Thailand respectively. Tifany received a master of public health degree in International Health from Tulane University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Health Education from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Melisa Hodzic, BS
Coordinator

mhodzic@mcw.edu | (414) 955-5646

Melisa Hodzic joined the Office of Global Health as a Program Coordinator in January of 2022. She most previously worked for Froedtert Hospital’s Language Services Department with a globally represented staff of medical interpreters and external agencies to ensure quality patient care. She also worked for their Food and Nutrition Services Department to help patients with nutrition and diet related questions. She was also a membership director for Healthcare Business Insights. She monitored projects with their research teams to implement policies, procedures, and protocols for healthcare organizations nationwide. As a refugee from Bosnia, she lived in Germany prior to being resettled to the United States. For her community service, she remains active with global and local non-profit organizations volunteering her time and collecting donations. She speaks and writes fluently in Bosnian, Serbo-Croatian, and German. During college, she completed an internship in Istanbul which resulted in publications and a semester abroad in Rome. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she earned a certificate in Peace Studies and a Bachelor of Science degree in Global Studies and Communication with a minor in Marketing.