About

Are you a humanitarian or social-impact professional navigating a changing world? 

  • Do you care about the well-being of people and communities, but feel the system is shifting underneath your feet?
  • Do you carry responsibility for others as a convener, coordinator, leader, or quiet backbone of your team?
  • Do you want to work in ways that honor compassion, accountability, shared power, and collective care?

If yes, welcome! You’re in the right place.

Hi, I'm Melissa.

When the people who support the world start collapsing, the whole system shakes.

I bring together the people who support others — humanitarians, conveners, analysts, coordinators, and purpose-driven professionals — so they can support each other, especially in this difficult season for the sector.

I’m most known for helping purpose-driven professionals:

  • get unstuck and clearly define their next step during times of uncertainty
  • translate their skills, values, and experience into meaningful opportunities (even outside their sector)
  • crowdsource practical solutions from peers who truly understand their challenges
  • deepen relationships across teams, sectors, and power levels
  • use participatory methods to create impact with others, rather than alone

Why this work matters to me:

I do this because I’ve lived through what happens when people who support others don’t get the support they need: burnout, identity loss, restructurings, and the pressure to “keep performing” inside systems that are themselves struggling.

What changed my trajectory was peer support: women who held space for me, reflected back my strengths, and helped me rebuild.

Now I help others experience that same transformation.​

Since 2001, I’ve worked across the humanitarian ecosystem — governments, the UN, NGOs, the Red Cross Movement, and academic spaces — building coalitions and supporting those who support others.

I co-authored widely used resources such as Working Well, Leading Well, Governing Well, and Funding Well.

I’ve facilitated cross-sector collaborations at AidEx, HNPW, CHS Alliance, ICVA, and other convenings dedicated to strengthening the humanitarian workforce.

I created Geneva Divas and co-facilitate the NGO Staff Wellbeing Network.

In 2024, I founded Facilitating the Future to focus on what matters most now:

strengthening the workforce that keeps solidarity alive.

Because when the people who support others feel strengthened, connected, and restored —

the whole system stands a little stronger too.

Less burnout. More connection. More regeneration.


10
next years with a workforce perspective
10
years with an NGO perspective
10
years with a donor perspective
2002
Started working for a donor

for refugee protection, assistance and durable solutions

2012
Began working for an NGO coalition

for principled and effective humanitarian action

2018
Experienced burnout

and stopped working for 5 months

2019
Co-created an initiative

anchored in Commitment Eight of the Core Humanitarian Standard (to support humanitarians to work effectively and treat them fairly and equitably)

2024
Founded a company

dedicated to supporting the humanitarian workforce, starting with you, through The Solidarity Experiment

Why wait? Your next step starts here.

Connect with women who understand your struggles, explore practical tools for well-being, and contribute to a future where the humanitarian workforce thrives.

Join us in creating a happier humanitarian workforce—starting with you.

Join us