Mel Brown is an Analyst at S&P Global Ratings. In her primary role, she manages a portfolio of credits annually and conducts credit risk analysis for bond rating transactions in the Charter School, Community College, and independent school sectors. In her previous role she was a Research Analyst in the Fixed Income Research Division of Northern Trust Asset Management. Her responsibilities included monitoring and analyzing municipal investment grade and high yield issuers across state and local governments, higher education, charter schools, and healthcare. She has a broad range of professional and volunteer experiences in the muni space, having led projects for small and large scale institutions on community and economic development initiatives. She previously worked at S&P Global Ratings as a primary analyst on bond rating transactions for multiple sectors including: state and local governments, charter schools, and higher education. Mel was also a member of the green bond evaluations team, which assessed the environmental impact of various green bond projects in areas including energy, water, waste and transport. Mel earned a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University with majors in Social Policy and African American Studies. She received a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago with concentrations in public finance and health policy. Mel is a member of the Chicago chapter of Women in Public Finance, the National Federation Of Municipal analysts and its affiliated Chapter of the Chicago Municipal Analyst Society. She has gained significant practice in team based leadership, data driven research, as well as independent results-driven projects. Taking an informal and formal approach to leadership, Mel exhibits discipline and resourcefulness inside and outside of designated leadership roles.