Melissa Wavelet

During more than 20 years of work in the nonprofit and public sectors, she has designed, implemented, and continuously improved a wide variety of social programs to be effective for their customers. Prior to 2013, she oversaw quality assurance and performance management (which was dubbed “KidStat”) at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Before that, she spent nearly 15 years focused on workforce development in New York City as an Assistant Commissioner overseeing the federal Workforce Investment Act for the City of New York, a researcher for MDRC, a grant maker at the Ford Foundation, and an employment services manager at a south Bronx nonprofit.

Between 2013 and 2019 she was responsible for the Colorado Department of Human Service’s approach to performance management (which was dubbed “C-Stat”), covering its $2.2 billion appropriated budget, and quality assurance, audit, and 2-Generation activities.

She received a Master’s in Public Administration from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Spanish at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.