Anita Melnyk, PhD

Director of Health and Life Science

Anita Melnyk is Director, Health and Life Sciences, at the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA). In this role, she provides leadership and strategic direction on activities that relate to this portfolio and provides a dedicated link between the CCA and the health and life sciences policy community. Anita also leads CCA assessments, working directly with expert panels to review, evaluate, and synthesize knowledge. She also supports CCA’s actions on equity, diversity, and inclusion, and Indigenous knowledge, learning and engagement, and leads hiring initiatives for research staff within the organization.

Anita has nearly a decade of experience at the CCA, working previously in various assessment-related positions including Project Director and Research Associate. She has overseen assessments on a wide range of topics, including measures to support equity, diversity and inclusion in the research system, the impacts of science and health misinformation, barriers to the use of gene therapies, and the socioeconomic impacts of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In 2022-3, Anita completed an interchange to Health Canada where she worked as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Pharmaceutical Drugs Directorate. Anita’s research interests span evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, genomics, and AMR, as well as EDI in STEMM and the role of science in evidence-based policy. Anita holds both a PhD and M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Ottawa, and a B.Sc. (Hon.) in Biology from Queen’s University. During her time at the University of Ottawa, Anita gained extensive experience volunteering in the fields of gender equality in STEMM and science policy. She has authored research papers in evolutionary biology and genomics, was a Bromley Science Policy Fellow, and received several grants, most notably NSERC Alexander Graham Bell funding throughout her graduate studies.