About Me

I’m a vaccine clinical trial research investigator, as well as an emergency medicine physician.

I’m very excited to announce results of a recent clinical trial published in The Lancet of a new Marburg virus vaccine, which demonstrated safety and promising immune results in a first-in-human clinical trial. This vaccine is very relevant to the ongoing Marburg virus outbreak in Uganda.

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(22)02400-X.pdf

Some additional information about me is available below and also at the following websites:

https://www.facebook.com/goarmy/photos/meet-lieutenant-colonel-melinda-hamerone-of-the-doctors-who-made-the-impossible-/10157291401978752/

https://www.goarmy.com/army-zika.html?iom=AFUJ-20-918_N_OSOC_ArmyTeam_TW_Post_5e_xx_xx

Faculty page at George Washington University:

https://apps.smhs.gwu.edu/smhs/facultydirectory/profile.cfm?empName=Melinda%20Morton%20Hamer&FacID=2074649709

LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/melindamorton1/

My formal bio is below:

Melinda Morton Hamer MD, MPH is Deputy Director for Operations at Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. She previously served on detail to the Department of Health and Human Services, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), in the Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe). She also served as Director of the Clinical Trials Center at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from 2017-2021. She has served as a principal and associate investigator for more than 20 FDA regulated and other clinical trials, to include multiple first-in-human vaccine trials, and the largest in history controlled human malaria challenge trial. She has also served on a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Working Group for Small Biotech Acceleration in support of the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan. She is also a graduate of the Advanced Course of Vaccinology (ADVAC). 

She is a U.S. Army flight surgeon and board-certified emergency physician, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Military and Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. She also holds a part-time appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University Department of Emergency Medicine. 

A West Point graduate, Dr. Hamer served in Hawaii, Egypt, and Washington DC in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as a military police officer prior to attending medical school. During this time, Dr. Hamer led security details and coordinated interagency disaster response planning for VIPs and special events at military bases in the Washington DC area. Dr. Hamer was a Sommer Scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she earned her MPH, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine. She has held multiple national board positions in the specialty of emergency medicine, and was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Dr. Hamer is also the co-author of official U.S. Government and Institute of Medicine reports on health care reconstruction efforts in Iraq, and has over 40 peer-reviewed publications as well as dozens of national abstract presentations and other reports. She was also senior editor for the Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine Guide: Evidence-Based Emergency Medicine. She has conducted emergency medicine and disaster research in Iraq, Sudan, Uganda, and Senegal, and was faculty for the World Health Organization Public Health Pre-Deployment Course.