Melina is proud to be joining Girls Leadership with 15+ years of experience in the private and non-profit sector. She has worked 12 years in people and operational management and transitioned from finance to development in 2016. Melina quickly found her footing and passion while working in development at the Cal Alumni Association, UC Berkeley; where she focused on stewarding and financially growing over 350 endowments put in place to support the university’s oldest merit based scholarships as well as a need and merit based scholarship that funded primarily first generation and underrepresented students. She also oversaw the national alumni chapter department.
The fight for social justice, access to education and equity are areas Melina’s extremely passionate about. She firmly believes that education is access and in order to fight the good fight and make change in her community Melina pursued education as an avenue of advancement. She was the first to attend college in her family and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business and Professional Leadership with a minor in Theology and a Master of Public Administration, Government and Policy.
Melina’s most excited to be a part of Girls Leadership. As a ‘girl mom’ and a woman of color that had to find her voice during her educational and career journey, she’s proud to support the organization in the years to come to build valuable strategy and a clear vision of what is next. She firmly believes in good trouble and that well behaved women seldom make history.
Melina is a California native, raised in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California and she settled into Oakland, California in 2006. Melina was widowed in 2020 and currently resides in Solano County with her two daughters and two dogs Macho and Camper.
