Melyssa is an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, sponsoring and supporting Employee Resource Groups to amplify the voices of those that are misunderstood and underrepresented in organizations and communities.

A former Vice President of Visa Inc., she has worked in Risk, Data, Security, Business Intelligence, and Product Organizations. Her focus also includes creating a center of excellence across the life cycle within account origination, authentication, and authorization to meet and maintain appropriate privacy, regulatory, and governance requirements while mitigating applicable risk. In her roles, she developed and managed predictive scoring products while optimizing solution delivery for clients.

Melyssa and her family are known for holding Kwanzaa celebrations in Northern California for more than 20 years allowing diverse audiences to experience the tradition while providing a focus for celebrating the Kwanzaa principles every day. She recently co-authored a book, Credit Repair Kit for Dummies 5^th edition, which helps consumers unlock the secrets to a great credit score, understand how credit and credit reporting work, and minimize impact from identity theft.

She currently sits on the Board of Directors for BALANCE (balancepro.org) and several other local community nonprofit organizations that provide services and advocacy to youth and families.

Melyssa holds a Bachelor of Science degree and lives just outside the San Francisco Bay Area in Tracy, California where she raised her three children and enjoys spending time with her six grandchildren.