Melanie Khamis completed her Ph.D. at the London School of Economics.She also holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick and a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Before and during her doctoral studies, she worked as an economist for the Department for International Development (DFID) (U.K.), as a consultant for the World Bank and as a researcher for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Her main research interests are labor economics, development economics and applied microeconomics.

She worked at IZA as a Research Associate from February 2008 until June 2011.

She is currently an Professor of Economics at Wesleyan University, where she was also an Associate Professor (2018 to 2023) and Assistant Professor (2011 to 2018). She continues to be affiliated with IZA as a Research Fellow.