dr. MT (Melina) Czymoniewicz-Klippel

Dr. Melina T. Czymoniewicz-Klippel is a Lecturer and Education Coordinator in the Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles Group at Wageningen University. She originally trained as an occupational therapist and holds an MSc in Community Child and Adolescent Health. From 2002 to 2006, she held various research and project management roles in the global health sector, with postings in Southeast and South Asia. She earned her PhD in Public Health from Monash University, Australia, in 2010. From 2010 to 2021, she held teaching and research positions at Pennsylvania State University in the U.S.

Melina teaches courses on lifestyles and consumption; health inequalities; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and qualitative research methods. She regularly supervises BSc and MSc theses and internships, as well as PhD students, and is actively involved in education leadership and governance at the chair group, study programme, and university levels.

Melina’s interdisciplinary research program has three key areas: (1) examining the lifestyle and health experiences of (marginalized) children and families within broader social and structural contexts using critical and social constructionist theory; (2) applying implementation science to improve health-related interventions; and (3) exploring strategies to develop inclusive teaching practices and student engagement. She is currently work package leader on a NWO Advancing Equity in Academia grant, “Disrupting Sameness in Dutch Academia,” and leads an education innovation project aimed at fostering students’ perspective-taking and “responsibility skills” through immersive experiences.