Melanie Grund
“The people of West Belfast taught me how to speak on behalf of a cause, to remain tenacious when faced with political red tape, and to make those in power hear me.”
Melanie Grund is a tenacious community-engagement professional committed to building a more peaceful and equitable world. Now pursuing a Master of Public Affairs at U-M, Melanie is already known as a “thought-leader, innovator, bridge-builder, and highly effective leader” in food insecurity and refugee and immigrant affairs.
Melanie’s experience with grassroots organizing, and belief in the power of communities, traces as far back as her post-undergraduate years in pre-ceasefire Northern Ireland. Melanie reflects, “The people of West Belfast taught me how to speak on behalf of a cause, to remain tenacious when faced with political red tape, and to make those in power hear me.” That tenacity propelled Melanie through a highly effective 25-year career in public service while mourning the loss of her husband to suicide, seeing her daughter through her own education at U-M, navigating a global pandemic, and holding onto her vision to make an even greater impact through advanced schooling.
Melanie has been particularly impactful in her role as senior advisor to the Oakland County Executive, where she led the county’s response to food insecurity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and advised the leadership team on utilizing American Rescue Plan funding to support transformational change for refugees, immigrants, and food access. Melanie’s experiences led her to focus on conflict transformation in the food security ecosystem throughout her graduate studies, in addition to continued collaboration on projects as a consultant with organizations and universities on the ground in Belfast and Colombia. Melanie’s professor remarks that “the policy world needs more people like her — curious and driven people who persevere in the face of hardship and who can deeply understand the very real impact that policy has on individuals and families.”