Melissa Charles (she, her, hers)

Training Coordinator

Melissa works with community members, students, staff, and faculty to operationalize and mobilize theories of social progress/change into sustainable grassroots praxis. She does so as an educator and in train-the-trainer modes of curriculum development/delivery (retreats, institutes, workshops, courses). She is able to engage with community partners to leverage community expertise to coordinate the ongoing education and training of organizers.

As a CEMI Training Coordinator, Melissa helps coordinate the development and delivery of training and resources to a cohort of 50+ nonprofit grantee organizations across the state. This has included developing a workshop training series centered around Power Mapping and Organizing & Movement Building in addition to working to build a strong network amongst grantees through organizing regular cohort meetings and convenings.

Melissa is an educator and organizer with a background in both grassroots/community and college campus organizing. She is a trained facilitator and a longtime educator/lecturer in topics of Pan-Afrikanism, Black & Ethnic Studies, Decolonization, Organizing & Social Movements, Somatics, Restorative/Transformative Justice, Inter/Intragroup Dialogue & Facilitation and Entrepreneurship. She is the co-founder and curriculum lead for a K-8 Afro-Indigenous liberatory community school and the founding Faculty Director for a Summer Abroad in Ghana program on Pan-Afrikan Social Movements.

Contact info: mecharle@ucsc.edu