EMAIL“To be free is to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” — Nelson Mandela
A through line to Melissa’s career is her focus on inspiring people to feel they belong and their voices matter, and ensuring that their communities have the tools, resources, and support needed to fight for justice and social change. She has over 20 years of experience as a community organizer, facilitator, and philanthropic leader.
At the Foundation, Melissa is one of the primary relationship holders with grantee partners seeking to reimagine and restructure unjust systems. She contributes to programmatic ideas and actively participates in funding by seeking, recommending, and managing grants and program-related investments that support communities so they can thrive on their own terms.
In her prior position as a program officer for the Piper Fund, she led the Right to Protest program, a national strategy to protect movements and the right to protest as a cornerstone of a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy. She led the program’s grantmaking, field-building, and donor engagement strategies, and built relationships with changemakers across the country.
Earlier, under her leadership as director of program and grantmaking for Headwaters Foundation for Justice, her team scaled up grantmaking and helped secure and manage numerous multiyear philanthropic partnerships.
Melissa serves on the Grantmaking Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and previously served on the Minnesota Workers Confluence Fund Steering Committee and the Jewish Community Action board.
She earned a bachelor’s in women’s studies from the University of California in Santa Cruz, graduating as valedictorian.
Outside of work, Melissa’s happy place is alongside family, friends, and community—sharing laughter, stories, joys, and the realness of life. She lives in South Minneapolis with her partner and their puppy.