About Us

Melanie Kesner is the Owner and Principal of Mel Rose Consulting, LLC. Melanie previously served as the Director of Public Policy at a Colorado nonprofit. There, she built a powerful policy and advocacy shop that represented Colorado faith communities and leaders with an over 90% success rate for the policies they led on.  Additionally, she assembled the Clean Slate Colorado Coalition, a coalition of over 50 organizations that passed the Clean Slate Colorado Act in May 2022. 

Melanie also brings over ten years of serving as a community organizer for many issue areas and across many states. Throughout each of these roles, Melanie has worked with directly impacted and underserved communities to uplift and center their voices throughout the legislative process. Melanie has worked on many issues, including affordable housing and homelessness, abolishing the death penalty in Colorado, bail reform, and reproductive justice issues.  With Melanie, you will receive a subject matter expert who can support you in a myriad of ways. She has worked on strategic messaging, worked on field campaigns for candidates, and managed and ran both community town halls and fundraising events. She has also facilitated multiple strategic planning meetings and can bring a variety of people to the table and keep them there, even when things get tough.  Melanie has a track record of balancing the nitty gritty details with the bigger, strategic picture. 

 In addition to being in the 2022 Emerge Colorado graduate class, she earned a BA in International Studies and a BA with Distinction in Religious Studies from the University of Denver. Melanie is also pursuing her Master’s in Public Administration and a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Colorado Denver.  You can find Mel hiking or biking with her husband and pup when she is not working,   cooking delicious meals, or playing water polo.