Melody Stevens

Melody serves as the Deputy Associate Director for Strategic Partnerships at CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD), where she has spent 14 years working to assure babies are born healthy and children reach their full potential.

Melody has focused on building relationships and collaborations with public and private sector that have accelerated the pace of advancement for the Center’s work. Melody served as a bridge between the CDC emergency response team and the CDC Foundation, helping to build collaborations with industry and philanthropic partners who have contributed millions of dollars in cash and in-kind contributions to the CDC Foundation to support CDC’s Zika response efforts. Melody’s ability to identify emergency response gaps and build solutions to advance the science in rapid ways was valuable to CDC’s efforts and continues to reap public health benefits.