Prof. Marissa Levine

Prof. Marissa Levine is committed to inspiring hope and doing her small part to create the conditions for a safer and healthier world. A world where generative relationships and diversity are valued while being “oblivious to difference.” A world where the collaboration that emerges from those relationships and our diversity advances our ability to live in harmony with our ecosystem.

Marissa is the Professor of Public Health Practice at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public Health (COPH) and collaborating faculty to the Department of Family Medicine at the USF Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa, Florida.  Her primary focus at USF is on equitable population health improvement in the context of a sustainable ecosystem.  Prof. Levine directs the USF Center for Leadership in Public Health Practice at COPH where she teaches a positive, strength-based, systems thinking approach to leading in complex contexts. 

Prof. Levine recently completed 16 years of state government service culminating in being appointed as the Virginia State Health Commissioner and agency head for the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) from 2014-2018. Prof. Levine previously held leadership positions at local health departments within VDH from 2002 until 2009 and then VDH deputy commissioner positions from 2009-2014. During that time, Prof. Levine was involved in the state’s response to the H1N1 pandemic.  As Commissioner, Prof. Levine led the effort to create an action framework for population health improvement called Virginia’s Plan for Well-Being and also led significant public health emergency preparedness and response activities as the state ESF-8 lead.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Levine has been a public health advisor at local, state and national levels as well as a frequent media guest expert. 

Prof. Levine is a retired family physician with 16 years of medical practice experience who also received a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  She received her MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY and completed family practice residency training at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.