Melanie Walker

American neurosurgeon and neuroscientist who served as a key bridge between Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates. Walker met Epstein around 1992 at the Plaza Hotel in New York while fresh out of college at the University of Texas. ' She later joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as Senior Program Officer and Deputy Director for Special Initiatives, and served as neurotechnology and brain science adviser to Bill Gates at bgC3 (now Gates Ventures). DOJ-released EFTA documents show extensive email chains between Walker and Epstein discussing 'The Modern Neuron' — a science venture she wanted to start — and mitochondria transplantation research for ischemic brain injury. In one email (EFTA00956869), she details plans to transplant mitochondria into ischemic brain stems, requests $6 million, and mentions basing operations out of Seattle.

In another (EFTA00652215), she sends Epstein a draft of her letter to Gates, writing 'women in science/medicine can do great things. I want to be one of them,' and mentions being on assignment at BGC3 and being a David Rockefeller Fellow. A third document (EFTA00680010) contains a thread between Walker, Bill Gates, and Casey Tegreene discussing her endovascular neurosurgery fellowship. Walker introduced Epstein to Boris Nikolic (Gates's science advisor), who in turn facilitated the first Gates-Epstein meeting in 2010. She is currently a Clinical Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center, leading first-in-human clinical trials on mitochondrial transplantation for stroke — the scientific extension of ideas discussed in the Epstein emails.

She is a David Rockefeller Fellow, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and is married to Steven Sinofsky, former president of Microsoft's Windows division.