Melissa Rowe

A native of eastern Kentucky, Melissa Rowe’s roots run deep in the food and family traditions of Appalachia. Driven by the desire to make a difference for marginalized people society often underestimates, she is passionate about bringing economic and health equity to all people regardless of their geographic location, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. With 30 years of experience in the technology industry, she has worked for start-ups, mid-sized companies, and large global corporations, including Amazon Web Services, Salesforce and Dell, serving in a variety of roles across business development, marketing and strategic planning. With a career focus on the public sector, she has subject matter expertise in health, human services, unemployment, workforce, and economic development. Her superpower of seeing opportunity in complexity has enabled her to develop first to market solutions, new businesses, and key partnerships, as well as empowering people in Appalachia to leverage remote career opportunities provided by the technology industry. We are excited to have her apply her passion, entrepreneurial spirit, and experience to help inform our strategic planning and make a difference for the people served by the LEE Initiative.