Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis
100 Women Pathway program consultant and facilitator
Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis is an environmental arts & humanities thought leader, scholar, writer, and transdisciplinary artist deeply committed to amplifying critical voices and creative visions for structural change, sustainable practice, environmental justice, and social transformation. Dr. Mel is a Planet Women 100 Women Pathway alum, now supporting the Pathway as a program consultant and facilitator. As the inaugural Executive Curator of Root to Flourish Collective, Dr. Mel's work ensures systemically marginalized voices are central to shaping the future of environmental stewardship. They are also Lead Coach & Consultant with The Art of Change Agency, supporting just, meaningful, and joyful ways of working, leading, writing, and creating. They teach social and environmental justice inquiry at Maryland Institute College of Art and serve as a board director with Orion Magazine, River Network, and Greens REALIGN. Rooted in the Gulf South’s folklore, dialect, foodways, music, and landscapes, Dr. Mel’s creative work explores nature writing themes in rural coastal settings through the lens of Black, Creole, and AfroIndigenous knowledges. Their book Biomythography Bayou is available via The Griot Project Book Series at Bucknell University Press; their writing can be found in academic and creative writing journals and anthologies, including About Place, Artlines, Queer Nature, Women & Language, and Feminist Formations. Their forthcoming poetry and installation art project Waterbody is supported by American Bird Conservancy‘s Afrofuturism Collective and Re:wild.