Melissa Ransdell is the principal of Melissajoy, a referral-based consulting and collaboration practice that helps organizations and leaders clarify their purpose and apply dynamic strategies to carry them out. She specializes in advancing the work of “small giants” – those that value impact over growth.
A down-to-earth professional – With more than 30 years of experience as a leader and consultant in non-profit and business sectors, Melissa is known for her focused, understated, and down-to-earth approach.
Moving beyond the status quo – Melissa provides strategies that go beyond the status quo. Her communications can break through silos, and her involvement typically facilitates growth and transformation.
On the leading edge of structures and systems that liberate potential – A student of both human and organizational development, Melissa is a Certified Holacracy Practitioner and is trained as a Holacracy Coach. Holacracy is practice for governing and running organizations that increases agility, transparency, innovation, and accountability.
She is also a co-founder and purpose agent of Duet, a self-organizing enterprise that is helping collaboratives and coalitions work with greater ease, effectiveness and harmony.
Trained in the StAGES model of human development, Melissa also holds graduate certificates in Women’s Integral Leadership and Advanced Women’s Integral Leadership programs from Saybrook Graduate School and has a bachelor’s degree in visual communications from Western Washington University.
Expertise in communications and operations – Since 2008 Melissa has been consulting and collaborating with purpose-driven organizations and advising established and emerging leaders throughout the U.S.
Previously she was vice president at one of the top ten public relations firms in the U.S. and the creative services product manager for a leading global asset management company.
Her career began with 15 years in the health education field as a key contributor in a successful startup that became a developer and publisher of national model health education programs with sales exceeding $50 million annually. Her positions included chief operating officer, director of product development, graphic designer and trainer.
The Seattle International District Rotary Club awarded Melissa a Community Service Award and she received the IRIS Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.
Committed to community – Melissa is a board member for the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international nonprofit that advocates for people who “stick their necks out for the common good.” She has been a contributor to and student of Equity Matters, a diversity and cultural competency training and consulting firm, and a volunteer “Big Sister” in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program for 12 years. She is also a long-standing member of the West Seattle Running Club.
Melissajoy Strategies is based and operates on the unceded ancestral land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish, and is a monthly supporter of Real Rent Duwamish.