Melanie Grafals is a senior project manager in the early childhood department. In this capacity, she contributes to a variety of projects by overseeing budgets and ensuring coordination among task teams. Prior to joining Child Trends, Melanie worked as a program manager at the North Carolina Healthcare Association, where she led the implementation of health equity initiatives to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in care delivery. Additionally, Melanie has coordinated and implemented multiple federally funded adolescent sexual health and violence prevention grants.

Melanie attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. Her master’s essay was a review of the ways in which restrictive abortion laws, gender discrimination, poverty, and racism impact maternal health outcomes in Chile and Bolivia. Melanie is particularly interested in abortion access, maternal and child health equity, and gender-based violence prevention.