About Melrose
Strategy grounded in people, power, and how change actually happens.
Melrose Consulting is a progressive strategy firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and working nationally.
We work with people trying to solve hard public problems — often the kind that cross policy, politics, organizing, communications, philanthropy, and community. That's intentional. Some of the hardest work doesn't belong to just one discipline.
What We Believe
The people closest to a problem should have meaningful power in shaping its solution.
That idea has shaped my work throughout my career.
Good strategy requires understanding how formal power works — legislatures, agencies, institutions, funders, political dynamics — but also recognizing that expertise doesn't only live inside those systems.
It lives with advocates. Community leaders. Practitioners. Organizers. And especially people who have experienced the problem firsthand.
My job isn't to walk into a room with the answer.
It's to ask good questions, understand what's really happening, identify where there's an opportunity to move, bring people together, and help build a strategy that can get us somewhere different.
Founder & Principal
Melanie Kesner
I've spent more than a decade working at the intersection of policy, advocacy, coalition building, communications, and organizational strategy.
Before returning home to New Mexico, I spent more than a decade doing this work in Colorado — leading statewide legislative campaigns, building coalitions across organizations and sectors, developing advocacy and organizational strategies, securing philanthropic investment, and helping people navigate policymaking systems that weren't necessarily designed to be accessible.
Most recently, I served as a senior state director for a national advocacy organization, where I led policy, programs, communications, partnerships, fundraising, and strategy across Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region. I developed a multi-year regional strategy, managed a $450,000 annual portfolio, led cross-functional teams, and helped secure more than $1 million in philanthropic investment.
My policy work has crossed healthcare and health equity, economic security, higher education, workforce development, basic needs, civil rights, criminal justice, reproductive rights, and democracy.
The issues have changed. The throughline hasn't: figuring out how power works, bringing the right people together, and building strategies that can actually move something.
I hold a Master of Public Policy from the University of Colorado Denver and bachelor's degrees in International Studies and Religious Studies from the University of Denver.
Experience Behind Melrose
Selected experience includes work conducted through Melrose Consulting and prior organizational leadership roles.
Our Partners
Built for mission-driven work.
Melrose works with organizations and leaders tackling complex public problems, including:
Nonprofits · Foundations · Advocacy Organizations · Coalitions · Community-Based Organizations · Public-Interest Initiatives
Our strongest partnerships are with clients who value collaboration, thoughtful strategy, community expertise, and a willingness to tackle hard questions.