Melanie Walker

Dr. Walker joined the World Bank Group after serving as the Deputy Director for Special Initiatives with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and previously in various capacities at the WHO related to macroeconomics and health. Prior to this time she was a health care practitioner and founder of a community program in the developing world.  She received her bachelor and medical degrees at the University of Texas, later completed residency/fellowship training in the clinical neurosciences at Huntington Memorial Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington and post-doctoral studies in computation at the California Institute of Technology.  Her areas of expertise are cerebrovascular disease and computational neurophysiology. She sits on the Executive Board of the American Medical Association Foundation and was recently named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum as well as a Harold and Joann Hoffman Endowed Lecturer by the American Academy of Pediatric Neurosurgery. (USA)