Melissa Chew is a public health consultant and a pharmacist. She graduated with a Masters of Pharmacy from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in 2006 and worked with the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Malaysia for six years where she was responsible for the pharmaceutical management, patient education and counseling, procurement and supply chain management as well as the training and operations of the pharmacy unit of five MoH primary care clinics. She established and managed access to HIV/AIDS medications at her primary care clinics. Additional roles included leading the development and improvement of the pharmacy module for a national level electronic health system used in MoH primary care clinics.

 

Following a ‘quarter-life crisis’ when Melissa started questioning how she can do ‘better’ and do ‘more’, Melissa embarked on her public health journey. She obtained her Master's degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2013 with a concentration in Health Leadership and Management. After a stint with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where she worked on the Primary Care Information Project, Melissa returned to South East Asia and consulted for the World Bank, World Health Organization and the University of Indonesia in areas such as health system assessment, questionnaire development, and medicine regulatory harmonization. In 2017, Melissa started working on child growth and nutrition issues, focusing on stunting. Melissa is a mother of two young children and tries hard to practice what she advocates regarding nutrition.