Melissa is a seasoned governance professional with a strong sense of what a good board looks like. She holds a Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance from the Chartered Governance Institute (formerly known as the ICSA) and is a part-qualified chartered company secretary.
Her extensive experience within the FE sector includes supporting eight different college Boards of Governors over 20 years, assisting two separate colleges through mergers and undertaking several board reviews in her capacity as clerk.
As a consultant and trainer, Melissa has also advised a range of educational institutions on their governance — from primary schools to universities — and ran the induction training service for new governors in Sussex colleges over 11 years. Most recently, she has worked with the Association of Colleges, delivering induction training and mentoring to newcomers as part of the ETF Governance Professionals Development Programme.
Outside of education, Melissa has run courses in minute writing and other committee skills for public sector workers and has a working knowledge of academy, charity and corporate governance.
Before entering the world of governance, she worked within the charity sector and ran her own retail business.
Over the years, Melissa has held many voluntary and trustee roles and is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of Brighton Women’s Centre. Needless to say, she has led the board through its own review of governance!
