Thomas O. Melia is the Assistant Administrator of USAID for Europe & Eurasia (E&E), having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December 2015. In this capacity, he is responsible for a diverse half billion dollar assistance portfolio and oversees the efforts of USAID missions and development programs in eleven countries, as well as regional programs.

Prior to his arrival at USAID, Mr. Melia was Executive Director of Democracy International (DI), where he elevated and projected the development insights gained by DI’s analytical and programmatic implementation work over the past dozen years. He was coleader of DI’s international monitoring mission for Egypt’s 2015 legislative elections.

From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Melia served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL). Working with Secretaries of State John F. Kerry and Hillary Rodham Clinton, he oversaw DRL’s work in three of the State Department’s six regions: Europe, South and Central Asia, and the Middle East.

Before joining the State Department, Mr. Melia was Deputy Executive Director of Freedom House, where he oversaw its research and analytical work and civil society capacity building
programs around the world. Previously, he served as Vice President for Programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). Earlier in his career, he was Legislative Assistant to
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (DNY).

Mr. Melia also has taught in graduate programs at The Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University, where he also was research director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. His commentaries and reviews on U.S. foreign policy and American politics have appeared in books, journals, and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad. He is coeditor of Today’s American: How Free?  – an in-depth assessment of the state of civil liberties and human rights in the United States.

Mr. Melia holds an M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at The Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Washington, DC with his spouse, Amy S. Conroy, and their son, Tomás.