Melissa Sweeney
Melissa is a freedom fighter and credits her mother for modeling the importance of political activism. From a very young age, Melissa became involved in social justice issues as a result of the inequalities she found herself witness to; in such circumstances, she found it impossible to close her eyes and not take responsibility for fostering change.
Melissa graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2002, focusing her studies and practice on interracial partnerships. She worked in a variety of mental health settings including Martin Luther King Elementary School, The Goldberg Couple and Family Therapy Center, Catholic Charities, as well as Four Winds Hospital- all located in Syracuse, NY. She later became the Educational Coordinator at the International Center for Cooperation & Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Teachers College- Columbia University in New York, NY. Apart from her work at Columbia University, she also studied Conflict Resolution and Peace Education and had the unique opportunity to work at the United Nations Office of the Secretariat.
At Stirfry Seminars, Melissa is currently the Director of Operations & Seminars. She values the work that she does immensely because of the company’s attention and focus on race relations. Melissa believes that there is still so much work to be done on this issue in the United States (and abroad!) and is happy to dedicate her time to promote this work.
How Melissa identifies herself racially and ethnically has been and continues to be a developmental, evolutionary process. To date, although she despises the social construction of race and the hierarchy that has resulted from it, she acknowledges her “whiteness” as a source of undeserved privilege in this society. Although her family’s ancestry is very ethnically mixed, she was raised in the Midwest with several cultural influences specifically from Ireland, Scotland and Germany. Complicating her identity development and understanding even further, Melissa recently had a DNA test done- which matched her gene pool with those around the globe that have the closest matching DNA. The results indicated that, genetically-speaking, those people that are most like her are from Turkey and Iran---- go figure!
