Impatient Optimists
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Authors / Biography

Melissa Covelli

Title Senior Communications Officer, Foreign Aid
Organization Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Melissa Covelli is a senior communications officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this capacity, she has led polio communications and helped increase awareness that vaccines work and have the potential to save millions of lives. She has also managed communications for a number of other health and development programs including nutrition and now works to help shift perceptions about foreign aid. Prior to the Gates Foundation, Melissa spent a dozen years building partnerships, managing issues, and improving image for non-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies alike.  

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Posts By Melissa Covelli

 

Ending Polio Is Possible

October 24, 2011 / Melissa Covelli

In times like these, it's easy to lose sight of the possibilities that exist - like ending polio.

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Pakistan Gets Boost from Japan for Polio Eradication

August 17, 2011 / Melissa Covelli

I was fortunate enough to visit Islamabad, Pakistan, in November 2010 to talk with partners, government, and media about how the Gates Foundation could help accelerate polio eradication efforts in the country.

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99 Percent of the Way to Polio Eradication

July 29, 2010 / Melissa Covelli

We are at an important point in the battle against polio.

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Fighting Polio in Nigeria with ‘Auntie’

June 18, 2010 / Melissa Covelli

Hajiya Rabi, also known as Auntie, shared softly that there were no more young children in Gwammaja Ward (in Kano, Nigeria) crippled by polio. Like others we would come to meet during our return trip to the country, she was very proud of the progress she and the other health workers had made in trying to reach every child with polio drops and other immunizations.

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  • "Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward." —Melinda Gates

  • The Global Fund has helped to deliver more than 190 million bed nets to protect families from malaria.

  • "The world faces a clear choice. If we invest relatively small amounts, many more poor farmers will be able to feed their families." —Bill Gates, 2012 Annual Letter

  • "When it come to global health, Bill and I are optimists—but we're impatient optimists. Tremendous progress is being made. But there is still so much we're impatient to see done." —Melinda French Gates

  • In Senegal, 80% of households now have a bed net, helping the number of malaria cases there drop 50% in a single year.

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