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For the past 13 years, Melissa has worked to inform local public policy, research, and community development through the not-for-profit and government sectors. In March 2006, she was appointed to the Mayor’s Office of Comprehensive Neighborhood Economic Development (CNED). In this role, she is leading CNED in uniting New York City’s economic development agencies to collectively build local capacity of neighborhood organizations while promoting workforce, asset, and business development programming in the Brooklyn community of Bedford Stuyvesant. She is developing an ambitious neighborhood investment plan of public and private programs tied directly to identified community needs.
Melissa received a Master in Public Policy from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Redlands. Prior to her graduate education at NYU, Melissa worked as an Economic Development Specialist providing direct technical assistance to small businesses in the Lower East Side post September 11th, and then as Director of Economic Development overseeing local commercial revitalization strategies in Central Brooklyn. In 2005, she was selected to participate in the Coro Leadership New York program, a highly competitive civic leadership program for mid-career professionals from across the public, non-profit, and private sectors in New York City.
Updated February 2009