Melissa Francis is a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service and currently serves as a Senior Advisor for the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL). She currently advances the Agency’s efforts to develop a new Policy, Resource, and Performance Bureau (PRP); Redefine our Development Relationship (RDR) with partner countries; and establish the new Development Finance Corporation.  She also leads many of PPL’s Agency management roles, including serving as the Agency’s Deputy Program Management Improvement Officer and a voting member of the Management Operations Council.

Ms. Francis has more than 20 years of U.S. Government and international development experience.  She has served with USAID as acting Mission Director, Program Office Director, and Supervisory Health Officer in Timor-Leste, Haiti, El Salvador, the Regional Development Mission for Asia, and the Bureau for Global Health (GH). 

Before joining USAID, she was a member of the senior management team for Tamarac, Florida, where she provided leadership for city-wide programs and operations, and managed the city’s grants program.  Prior to that, she served with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) where she conducted federal program evaluations.  Additionally, she served with the American Red Cross, founded a non-profit focused on women’s empowerment, and managed a family owned import-export company. 

She is fluent in French, Haitian Creole, and Spanish; and has a working knowledge of Portuguese.  She holds a Master of Arts in International Development and Public Administration, and a Graduate Certificate in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida.  She received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Florida State University.