Dr. Helitzer's research has focused on interventions in communities and in clinical settings.  She has always worked in teams - together with clinician experts - on topics such as diabetes, injury prevention, teen pregnancy prevention, childhood adversity, health literacy, cancer, obesity prevention, patient-provider communication, and most recently, women faculty career development.  She has taught multiple courses in the MPH and Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) programs: Grantsmanship, Qualitative Research, Measurement, Research Design and Methods, Program Planning and Evaluation, and International Health.  Her research has received multiple accolades and awards.  One such accolade is from Sonia Shah, author of The Fever (2010), who wrote: "One of the best ethnographic studies on health beliefs was conducted by Deborah Helitzer of the University of New Mexico...her findings carry profound implications for humankind's struggle with the (malaria) parasite."