Melissa Caperton Email & Phone Number

Apex, North Carolina, United States

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Area

Led the organization's local and regional initiatives with a focus on achieving the state's 2030 educational attainment goal. Efforts included the launch of 15 local educational attainment collaboratives in partnership with ncIMPACT, representing 38 of the state's 100 counties. Led multiple statewide topic-focused collaborative networks including the FAFSA Network (49 school districts) and the Opportunity Youth Network (53 counties).

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Led the transition of the American College Application Campaign (ACAC) to ACT's Center for Equity in Learning. ACAC is a national initiative designed to increase the number of first-generation students and students from low-income backgrounds who apply to and enroll in postsecondary education. Engaged national leaders, state officials, and high schools to assist in the development, implementation, and expansion of college application campaigns based on North Carolina’s successful College Application Week program.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Directed the American College Application Campaign (ACAC), a national initiative designed to increase the number of first-generation students and students from low-income backgrounds who apply to and enroll in postsecondary education. Engaged national leaders, state officials, and high schools to assist in the development, implementation, and expansion of college application campaigns based on North Carolina’s successful College Application Week program.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a federally-funded grant program designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.- Wrote, awarded, and implemented a seven-year $28.6 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education serving 22,000 students in 46 North Carolina middle and high schools.- Administered a six-year $19.2 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education, ensuring programmatic and financial fidelity.- Supervised the daily operations of the GEAR UP North Carolina office and team which included eight full-time staff and 19 partner school districts.- Advised partner school districts during the development of their annual GEAR UP budget and work plans. Reviewed and approved monthly claim reimbursements from school districts ensuring that budgets were on target and quality of programming remained high and compliant with federal and state guidelines.- Developed and delivered GEAR UP college access statewide programming for students via strong partnerships and relationships with colleges and universities, businesses, and non-profit organizations throughout North Carolina. - Designed training and professional development opportunities for GEAR UP coordinators, teachers, principals, and other key school personnel.

New York, Ny

- Responsible for providing an informed recommendation regarding the appropriate processes and scope for obtaining implementation and outcome data from districts.- Managed the establishment of data relationships with select districts to gather efficacy evidence for College Board’s K-12 programs.- Conducted research for K-12 programs including managing data collection, literature reviews, data validation, analysis and reporting conclusions.- Developed surveys intended to go “beyond the numbers” within a school/district to understand the impact College Board’s K-12 programs have on students, teachers, schools, and districts.

Reston, Va

Supported the following local and federal government clients in large teams to achieve the successful implementation of technical functionality and new business processes.Transportation Security Administration (TSA)- Collected and analyzed data for Orlando International Airport including passenger arrival rates, security line waiting times, bag check and magnetometer alarm rates, and processing times. Used data model to determine the number of lanes necessary at each security checkpoint. - Led National Team in a high priority validation of the data model used by Accenture for the stakeholder. Created a presentation for the client detailing the analysis, methodology, results, explanations, and conclusions of the data model validation. - Coordinated 300+ contractor user IDs, background clearances, and system access with TSA and Department of Transportation employees located in Washington, DC and Oklahoma City.- Selected to work on high-priority team to ensure all airport security screeners had received and passed required background clearance checks.- Received highest rating for work done with TSA: Exceptional Contribution Washington DC Office of Tax and Revenue- Supported the DC Office of Tax and Revenue in a reengineering effort of its revenue management operation through the implementation of improved business processes, technologies, and organization design.- Programmer for Real Property Tax development; responsible for building and testing new system functionality in multiple areas of Real Property and resolving System Investigation Requests. - Ensured product quality by identifying functional and technical problems, communicating same to both the technical and design teams and ensuring overall compliance with the client requirements.

Washington, D.C.

Graduate Fellow, Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs: May-August 2000- Top Secret clearance, economic analyst for the region - Identified events important to the intelligence community and presented these events in a daily briefing to senior U.S. government officials.- Researched intelligence “hot topic” and compiled findings into an Intelligence Report for policy makers. Graduate Fellow, Arms Control Intelligence Staff: January-August 1999Intern, Arms Control Intelligence Staff: Summers 1996-1998- Top Secret clearance, junior analyst for the Chemical and Biological Issues Team- Represented the intelligence community at interagency policy meetings. - Established an Agency intelligence collection plan for chemical and biological weapons.- Created and managed a database on chemical weapons facilities for interagency use.Recipient of C.I.A.’s Exceptional Performance Award (1996, 1998, 1999)

Bachelor Of Arts, Political Science

Master Of Public Policy

Awarded Thomas Jefferson Fellowship for Graduate Study National Academy of Sciences, Consultant, Graduate Student Policy Research Seminar.

Education record