About
Originally from New Orleans, LA, I lived on the Gulf Coast in my childhood and the East Coast as a young adult, where I earned my BA at Yale University. I made the West Coast my home over 35 years ago. My formative adult years were in San Francisco, where both my daughters were born and I started my career in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector. I earned a doctorate in developmental psychology at Stanford University, started my own research and consulting firm focused on youth and community development, and eventually led a handful of intermediary collective impact grantmaking organizations in Oakland, raising and regranting over $100M in the last ten years. I am a huge animal lover, and have always had several dogs and cats at any given time.
I am an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, and we are Wolf Clan. I am a first-born daughter of a first-born daughter of a first-born daughter. Both my parents grew up in Oklahoma, and were the first in their families to attend college; my Cherokee mother met my European-descent father as they began their careers. I am heavily influenced by my late father's descriptions of his childhood experiences working on his small family farm as well as his professional experience working for Senator Robert Kennedy in the late 1960's, as well as my mother's ambition, courage, and lifelong dance between independence and interdependence. My professional bio is below:
Melanie Moore is Chief Executive Officer of Oakland Thrives. An experienced, strategic social sector leader specializing in innovation, collaboration, and collective impact in public-private partnerships, she was a professional evaluator for over 15 years, leading projects assessing the impact of youth development, school reform, community development programs, capacity- building initiatives, and funder networks. As a strategic leader in the social sector for over 25 years, she has created strategies for achieving community and population-level results in governmental, nonprofit, and philanthropic organizations. Dr. Moore was the lead evaluator for the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth, and Families first comprehensive outcomes- based evaluation, and also led the Department’s citywide strategic planning efforts for the Mayor’s Children’s Cabinet.
Dr. Moore founded See Change, Inc., an evaluation and strategic consulting firm with the goal of improving critical thinking in organizations working to make social change. After eight years leading the company, she joined the Family Independence Initiative as Managing Partner to promote economic and social mobility for families. In this role, she was a founding partner of ALL IN Alameda County, an initiative to bring an innovative approach to the county’s poverty alleviation efforts, and ultimately she led ALL IN for five years as Director. Subsequently, Dr. Moore served two seasons as the Executive Director of the Golden State Warriors Community Foundation until 2020 when she returned to her roots in collective impact as leader of Oakland Thrives, a public/private partnership dedicated to making Oakland's children, youth, and families the healthiest in the nation. She has served as CEO for over 5 years, and in 2026 is handing the baton to the next leader of this influential civic organization.
About the Work
The skills I've developed in my work life include active listening, large and small group facilitation, conflict mediation, analysis of complex adaptive systems, strategy development for social change, organizational development, fundraising, writing, public speaking, storytelling, evaluation of outcomes and impact, and leadership.
I've applied these skills primarily in place-based efforts, focusing on the well-being of a local population influenced by multiple overlapping systems. My most recent work is a community transformation effort called Rise East (riseeast.org) that involves cross-sector partnerships with national and local funders, local government leaders, as well as on-the-ground community-based organizations. My organization listened to our local community leaders, developed a platform for their vision, and led the effort to create a pooled philanthropic fund for a five-year implementation effort. A national funder provided a $50M challenge match, and in 18 months, we raised the match with contributions ranging from $10k to $10M.
Prior to working on the Rise East initiative, in 2015 I had the great joy of stewarding the "food as medicine" vision of two influential Oakland leaders -- the late Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan and the late President of Children's Hospital Oakland, Bert Lubin -- from concept to implementation. Partnering with local regenerative farmers, willing and visionary physicians and healthcare leaders, our county public health department, and many nonprofit food justice organizations, our small team at All In Alameda County created the blueprint for a "circular food economy," with "food prescriptions" as a first innovation. Our early efforts catalyzed actions at the local and state levels of government, resulting in our county allocating $5M for the creation of 5 "food hubs" across the county, and our state passing legislation allowing for the use of Medicaid dollars to purchase and provide healthy food for individuals experiencing food insecurity and diet-related disease.
All of these skills and experiences relate to the work of organizing people living in a bioregion to care for each other and the places we call home: articulating a common vision, creating aligned efforts that can help realize that vision, and attracting meaningful resources to fuel those aligned efforts.
