Melissa Durda

Melissa Durda is Senior Director, Bridging Leadership at Synergos, a global nonprofit organization that brings people together to help solve complex issues around the world by advancing bridging leadership, which builds trust and collective action. She is a leadership coach for non-profit and social impact leaders and has nearly 20-years program design and facilitation experience.
 
Melissa leads Synergos’ Spiritual Civilization and Shifting Food Systems Collaborative Communities, where Synergos’ Global Network members convene for learning and collective action, supported by the Bridging Leadership framework and skills training. She hosts the Synergos Cultivate the Soul: Stories of Purpose-driven Philanthropy, where leaders in philanthropy discuss how they are connecting inner work to outer action and the impact this creates for change.
 
Prior to this, Melissa created and managed a Philanthropy Program at Vaclav Havel’s Forum 2000 Foundation. In this role she worked with private philanthropists promoting human rights, civil society, and democracy. Melissa’s nonprofit project management experience is in a variety of fields (education, children, nutrition, advocacy, emergency response, water, media) on projects in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States.
 
Melissa has a MSc. in European Political Economy: Transition from the London School of Economics and a BA in International Relations from the University of Virginia.