Melanie Hall is an accomplished innovator committed to health equity and community empowerment. She has pioneered internal systems change across government, commercial, and nonprofit organizations to help them collaborate with communities to improve access to nutritious food and promote lifelong healthy habits through data-informed solutions.

Believing that innovation stems from rigorous research, Melanie excels at multi-year strategies and engaging data interpretation to turn insights into action. From state-wide fruit and vegetable campaigns for SNAP households at the CA Dept of Public Health; to novel WIC resources, staff trainings and merchandising practices that increased program engagement at Kellogg; to launching the first Organic WIC-eligible breakfast cereals at Kashi—each initiative leveraged data and actionable insights to secure funding, ensure organizational commitment, and spark public/private collaboration.

As Chief Research & Innovation Officer at Feeding America, Melanie leads teams that support a national network of 250+ members who provide food and a combination of training, funding, and/or technology solutions to 60,000+ programs and organizations delivering healthy food and other social determinants of health services to food insecure communities. Her research and evaluation teams work to deepen our collective understanding of the scope and drivers of food insecurity in America, while her Health Impact team supports the development of dignified Food Is Medicine solutions that address the unique needs faced by the 47 million people who don’t have access to healthy food.

Melanie is a graduate of Tufts University with an MS in Nutrition Communications, she completed her dietetic internship at Frances Stern Nutrition Center and holds a BS in Nutrition Science from the University of California at Berkeley. She lives in the Chicagoland with her husband, two sons, and two cats.