About me
Melissa Shaw is a facilitator, organizer and educator who offers a unique consultancy based in social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, social emotional learning and the arts. She currently serves as the Director of Social Action and Courageous Conversations for Lab/Shul in NYC. She has facilitated for school districts, Universities, Broadway theaters, summer camps, detention centers, yeshivas, corporate offices, and long-term temporary housing centers. She has led workshops for Israelis and Palestinians, tech professionals, Rabbis, Imams, non-profit managers, video game designers, Buddhist monks, NGO leaders, and the NYPD. Melissa helps to run a variety of restorative, anti-bias, and anti-racist programs for the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, Building Cultures Group, Powerful Communications and was for years a Senior Facilitator for the Anti-Defamation League. She has been a Teaching Artist and Creative Coach for various community-based organizations, including Community Word Project, Brooklyn Arts Council, Energize Your Voice, and the Lulu and Leo Fund. She served as the Arts and Communication Advisor for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee and is a Nahum Goldmann Fellowship Alum. As an experiential Jewish educator and peace builder, she has brought dialogue and listening practices through a 'Jewish lens' to Jewish organizations such as Hebrew Union College, Lab/Shul, the Foundation for Jewish Camp, UJA, Temple Ner Tamid, and more. She is a certified Ethno-Religious mediator, Restorative Justice practitioner and recently completed her certification in the iCenter's Conflicts of Interest curriculum. Melissa holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a hopeful outlook on the world.
