Melissa Waller is Director of Public & Private Partnerships at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. In this role, she works to develop partnerships with government entities, industry leaders and academic institutions aligned with the Institute’s mission and those of its affiliated research centers.

Previously Waller served as the former Deputy Treasurer and Chief of Staff for the North Carolina Department of State Treasury, where she successfully oversaw Department strategic planning, operations, and public-policy implementation, along with a staff of more than 400 employees. The North Carolina Retirement Systems, the pension fund for the state, is the tenth largest public pension fund in the United States, with assets in excess of $100 billion.

Waller’s background includes over 20 years of private and public-sector financial industry experience, including 15 years in the banking sector with Wachovia/Wells Fargo. She currently also serves as Executive Program Director for the National Institute of Public Finance within the NAST Foundation and is the President of the AIF Institute.

Waller graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in journalism and mass communication and a concentration in instructional design.