Catherine McCarty, PhD, MPH

Catherine A. McCarty was born and raised in Duluth, MN. She received her B.S. and MPH degrees in nutrition from the University of Minnesota and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. She recently completed a master’s degree in bioethics with an emphasis in clinical ethics at Clarkson University. After completing her PhD, she was the Head of the Epidemiology Research Unit in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne, Australia for eight years. During that time, she directed a population-based study of eye disease in Victoria, Australia and collaborated on similar projects in Hyderabad and Chennai, India and on Hong Kong. Dr. McCarty returned to the US in 2001 as a Senior Research Scientist at Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation where she was the Principal Investigator for the Personalized Medicine Research Project, a population-based biobank with more than 20,000 adult participants and 20 active research projects. 

She was the Director of the Research Division at Essentia Institute of Rural Health prior to taking up the position of Associate Dean for Research at the Medical School, Duluth campus, in February 2017.