Melissa Nibungco

Melissa was most recently senior manager of the grants program at New York Hospital Queens (NYHQ), a not-for-profit community hospital. Under her leadership, NYHQ’s grants program secured external funding for a wide range of innovative health programs and services. Prior to NYHQ, Melissa spent over three years at what was formerly known as the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS as the organization’s principal writer and was responsible for all grant applications, reports, presentations and health care policy position papers.

Melissa holds an M.A. in medical anthropology with distinction from Southern Methodist University and a B.S. in anthropology and biology from the State University of New York, College at Geneseo. Her Ph.D. research, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Fulbright Program, focused on how gender intersects with the lived experience of disease (tuberculosis) in the Philippines.