Melissa is an engaging and dynamic facilitator, focusing on relationship building, community outreach, and collaborative decision-making. Melissa is particularly keen on designing innovative and unique community engagement spaces, where inclusivity, transparency, and access are underlying values of the process. Melissa designs and implements engagement strategies in a range of urban and rural communities, including identifying and engaging key stakeholders, facilitating difficult and potentially contentious conversations, strategizing online outreach to increase public participation, and analyzing public engagement data, both quantitative and qualitative, to assist decision-makers in their planning processes. She is particularly adept at bridging the gap between bureaucratic processes and public participation, creating ways for agencies to communicate with stakeholders through effective channels. Melissa has worked with a number of federal and state agencies convening working groups, facilitating stakeholder outreach, and building consensus around public land management and environmental issues.
Melissa holds an MA in International Development from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Prior to moving to Colorado, Melissa attended the University of Georgia as an undergraduate and remains a loyal Georgia Bulldog during football season each year.