For more than 12 years, Melissa McKenna has been a tireless advocate for education and the disabled community. She has testified in Annapolis, before the Montgomery County Council and Planning Board, MCPS Board of Education, and in our municipalities. Her success is based on building collaborative working relationships with community members, staff, and elected officials. In her advocacy efforts for funding and for policy change, her ability to focus on details in the big picture helps her find actions that yield positive results. She possesses a wealth of County and MCPS budgetary and tax knowledge, along with an unmatched understanding of County policy and planning.

In the nonprofit community, Melissa currently serves as the Secretary of the Montgomery County Branch of the NAACP and as a Director on the Rockville Sister Cities Corporation. She is a past President of the Montgomery County Business and Professional Women. In March 2023, she was recognized by the Montgomery County Commission for Women as one of their 2023 Women Making History Award recipients.

Melissa still volunteers with MCPS currently serving on both the Boundary Study and Program Review committees. She served on the 2023-2024 Schools Technical Advisory Team for the county Growth and Infrastructure Policy update as the NAACP representative and did considerable work with MCCPTA to the 2016 update to the then Subdivision Staging Policy.

 In the end, Melissa’s goal is always to just get things done. She has done this in spades securing more than $1 billion dollars for MCPS’ Operating Budget as a result of the 2016 Montgomery County Council Education First budget and tens of millions of dollars in school construction funding from Annapolis.

As a Shakespearean Scholar by education and a former Director of Publications, she is happiest around books.