Holidays: Ritual, Celebration, and History

About your Instructor

Melissa Shaw

Melissa Shaw is a facilitator who offers a unique consultancy based in the arts, social justice, diversity and inclusion, and social emotional learning. She has facilitated in universities, schools, summer camps, detention centers, yeshivas, churches, corporate offices, and long-term temporary housing centers. She has facilitated workshops for high school students, security guards, chaplains, non-profit managers, video game designers, Buddhist monks, school principals, older adults, NGO leaders, and the NYPD. She is a teaching artist and creative coach for various community-based organizations, including Community Word Project and the Lulu and Leo Fund. Melissa also facilitates for a variety of the Anti-Defamation League's programs, including its A World of Difference Institute, Words to Action, Echoes and Reflections and Respect for All initiatives. She was on faculty for Drew University's 2018 Institute On Religion and Conflict Transformation where she helped to foster dialogue among religious and lay leaders from around the world. She is the Arts and Communication Advisor for the Muslim Jewish Solidarity Commitee. Last summer, Melissa was part of the prestigious Nahum Goldmann Fellowship cohort. She is an associate artist with Falconworks Artist Group. Melissa holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.