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 a 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.