Melissa Stafford Jones, MPH

Melissa Stafford Jones is the president and CEO of the Public Health Institute (PHI), where she leads the organization’s work to strengthen public health practice and improve health, well-being, and opportunity for communities across the nation.

Melissa’s career is rooted in a deep commitment to ensuring that all people, especially those facing the greatest barriers, have the opportunity to thrive. She brings decades of experience working at the community, state, and national levels, translating policy into action and building partnerships that deliver measurable impact where people live, learn, and grow. Her experience spans public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors.

Before joining PHI, Melissa served as Director of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative at the California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS). In this role, she partnered closely with local health departments and community-based organizations across California, as well as sister state agencies, to reimagine the state’s children and youth behavioral health system. These efforts established an innovative, integrated behavioral health ecosystem in which children and youth are routinely screened, supported, and served for emerging and existing mental health and substance use needs, with a strong emphasis on early intervention and prevention.

Earlier, Melissa served as executive director of the First 5 Association of California, where she led statewide strategies to advance early childhood policies centered on the whole child and the whole family. This role allowed her to support communities to strengthen systems that promote lifelong health and well-being from the earliest years.

At the national level, Melissa served as regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Region IX under the Obama administration from 2014 to 2017. In this role, she worked alongside state and local leaders, community partners, and elected officials to implement the Affordable Care Act, expand access to health care and social services, and improve health outcomes for diverse and underserved populations across the region.

Melissa has also led at the intersection of policy, systems, and care delivery as president and CEO of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, where she advanced public policies that strengthened the safety net, improved health status, and expanded access to care for low-income and uninsured communities. Her experience includes philanthropy, having served as executive director of the Dean & Margaret Lesher Foundation.

Melissa holds a Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Science in biology from Saint Mary’s College of California.