An official with the U.S. Government Accountability Office will be at the La Follette School on Monday, November 21, to talk with students who are interested in working with the GAO or another federal agency. He also will present at the La Follette School seminar at noon.
Thomas Melito, a director in the GAO’s international affairs and trade team, will be in the conference room from 8:30 to 10 a.m. and from 10:30 to noon. Coffee and bagels will be served. “He is someone with a deep expertise on a variety of international policies and should be of particular interest to MIPA students who may just want to talk policy,” notes associate director Donald Moynihan.
At noon Melito will discuss a June 2011 GAO report
concluding that funding development projects through the purchase,
shipment and sale of U.S. commodities is inefficient and can cause
adverse market impacts. The seminar will be in the La Follette School conference room.
“I welcome the opportunity to meet with the students and faculty,” Melito says. “GAO is not hiring at this time, so I can only provide information about and enthusiasm for a career at GAO.”
At GAO Melito is primarily responsible for GAO’s work involving multilateral organizations and international finance. Over the last 15 years, Dr. Melito has focused on a wide range of development issues, including debt relief for poor countries, human trafficking and international food assistance. Under his leadership, GAO’s work on international food assistance includes reviews of the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. aid programs, local and regional procurement of food aid, and the Feed the Future Initiative. In 2011, GAO published three reports on U.S international food assistance, including reviews of nutrition and quality control, the McGovern-Dole food for education program and the monetization of food aid. Since 2007, Melito has testified six times to Congress on GAO’s food assistance work, most recently on U.S. efforts to address global food insecurity. He holds an master’s and doctorate in economics from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.
— posted November 16, 2011