Melanie Howell, MD

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Dr. Melanie Howell earned her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Clemson University in 2002 where she also spent time engaging in student government and a variety of club sports. After her undergraduate studies, she moved to Boston to work full-time in a genetics research laboratory. In this role she studied various forms of muscular dystrophy and methods for modeling human muscle disease in animals. She went on to obtain her Masters degree in Pharmacology at Tulane University in New Orleans before earning her medical degree at Tulane School of Medicine in 2012. She proudly completed her general surgery residency at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. After graduating surgical residency in 2017, Dr. Howell completed a fellowship in bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at Johns Hopkins and has been certified by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. After fellowship in 2018, she returned to the New York City area and served the downtown Brooklyn community at The Brooklyn Hospital Center practicing in bariatric and general surgery. She has now joined the faculty at Bassett Medical Center in rural, central New York. Dr. Howell is passionate about health care equity: especially with regards to reducing anti-fat bias and ending weight-based stigma in healthcare settings. She is interested in research pertaining to weight recidivism after various interventions and the intersection of obesity and food insecurity. Outside of the hospital, she enjoys the outdoors, wandering, and spending time with her wife and dog.