Dame Melinda Veronica Simmons DCMG (born 1966) is a British diplomat who served as the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Ukraine from 2019 to 2023.

[3] She was educated at the City of London School for Girls, before reading Modern Languages (French and German) at the University of Exeter, where she graduated as BA (Hons) in 1988.

She then pursued further studies in European Politics at the University of North London, receiving a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1995.

[citation needed] From 1998 to 2003, Simmons held various positions including working with businesses to develop an ethical trademark; managing land restitution in the former Soviet Union; developing global policy on conflict prevention and resolution and setting up the Global Conflict Prevention Pool (GCPP), bringing together the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Ministry of Defence (MoD) and DfID to collaborate on conflict prevention/resolution programmes in South Asia and the Middle East, becoming Head of the Africa Team, 2500 Unit (2003–05).

[citation needed] After undertaking full-time language training (in Ukrainian) with the FCO from 2018,[7] in 2019, Simmons was appointed British Ambassador to Kyiv, Ukraine.