Palesa has over 12 years of experience managing, designing, implementing, and evaluating developmental programs in Health, Social Development, and the Education sectors. Palesa started her career as Field Monitor with the World Food Program monitoring implementation of nutrition and relief projects in Lesotho. She later joined the Government of Lesotho. She served as a Regional Technical Director for the Institute for Health Measurement (IHM), supporting country offices in Swaziland, Lesotho, and Zambia. She also worked as the Country Director for a USAID flagship project (Enhancing Strategic Information) in Lesotho. She holds a Master of Public Health Degree, a Master of Philosophy Degree in Evaluations Science, a Post Graduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation, and a BA in Sociology and Public Administration.

Palesa currently serves as the Senior Human Resource for Health (HRH) Advisor for the Lesotho Ministry of Health to advance the HRH agenda in the country working closely with development partners such as PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and the World Bank as well as various implementing partners to lead HRH sustainability efforts. In this role, she coordinates a multisectoral technical working group that supports the Ministry to develop HRH policies and strategies. She leads analytics and coordinates with disease programs and district teams to develop synergies and generate information products that guide investments in HRH at the central level. She provides technical oversight on health workforce labor market dynamics that affect supply, absorption, retention, and performance of the health workforce.