Meet the AI Hub’s new Deputy Director: Genevieve Melton-Meaux

The University of Minnesota’s leadership in computing, data science, biomedical informatics, and artificial intelligence spans decades. With nationally recognized leadership in health informatics and AI-driven healthcare innovation, the University has helped shape how data and intelligent technologies are used to improve patient care, clinical decision-making, and public health. From foundational advances in supercomputing and machine learning to nationally recognized research partnerships and public-sector collaborations, the University continues to lead through interdisciplinary scholarship and real-world application of AI across healthcare, agriculture, sustainability, public policy, education, and industry.

Earlier this year, the University of Minnesota launched the AI Hub as a way to bring together work that was already happening in classrooms, labs, hospitals, businesses and communities across its campuses and throughout the state.

Now, Dr. Genevieve Melton-Meaux has been named deputy director of the AI Hub, a key role in the University’s efforts to connect AI research, education and real-world application across disciplines.

The appointment comes as the University of Minnesota aims to make strategic investments in AI and ensure it is applied in ways that improve lives and serve the public good.

“AI is changing how we work, learn and care for one another,” said Galin Jones, vice provost for artificial intelligence. “Our responsibility as a public university is to help shape those changes in ways that benefit society.”

Melton-Meaux brings a career built at the intersection of medicine, data science and system-level innovation.

She is the McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor of Surgery, senior associate dean for health informatics and data science, and a core faculty member in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Institute for Health Informatics. She also directs the Center for Learning Health System Sciences, where she works to implement interventions and translate data into evidence that can improve healthcare systems and patient outcomes.

Her research spans clinical natural language processing, clinical decision support, AI in healthcare, surgical informatics, and the development of learning health systems that generate real-world evidence to improve patient outcomes and population health. 

Melton-Meaux is also a nationally recognized leader in the field. She has served as president of both the American College of Medical Informatics and the American Medical Informatics Association. In 2024, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, recognizing her contributions to biomedical informatics and the responsible integration of AI in healthcare.

As deputy director, she will help guide coordination across disciplines, strengthening partnerships across academic, clinical, government and private-sector organizations. She will also support efforts to apply artificial intelligence in ways that improve operational effectiveness and support more human-centered systems for the University and through statewide collaborations.

For Melton-Meaux, the opportunity lies in connection — between disciplines, between research and practice, and between innovation and impact.

“Over the years, my work has increasingly focused on how institutions learn from data and how AI can help improve entire systems of care,” said Melton-Meaux. “I’m eager to expand on that thinking and further build the University’s network of talented colleagues, students and community partners who are just as excited to help define how we do that.”