Melissa Durda is Senior Director for Bridging Leadership at Synergos, a global non-profit founded by the Rockefeller family. The organization brings people together to address complex global problems by advancing bridging leadership, which builds trust and supports collective action. Melissa is also a coach for leaders in the non-profit and social-impact sectors, with nearly twenty years of experience designing programmes and facilitating.

At Synergos she leads the Shifting Food Systems Collaborative Community, where members of the global Synergos network share knowledge and act together, supported by bridging-leadership methods and skills training. She also co-moderated the series “Synergos Cultivate the Soul: Stories of Purpose-driven Philanthropy”, in which philanthropic leaders discussed how they connect inner development with outward action and the impact that has on driving change.

Before her current role, Melissa created and led the philanthropic programme at Václav Havel’s Forum 2000 Foundation. There she worked with private philanthropists to support human rights, civil society and democracy. Her experience managing non-profit projects spans education, children’s issues, nutrition, advocacy, emergency response, water and media, in projects carried out in Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States.