Melissa Nozell is an expert in religion and peacebuilding with over fifteen years of experience supporting the effective engagement of religious actors in conflict prevention and positive social change. She is currently a Strategic Religious Engagement Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, where she works to document and strengthen strategic religious engagement capacities in foreign affairs. She also consults independently with organizations seeking to partner more effectively with religious stakeholders to advance peace and build inclusive societies.

Previously, Melissa served as senior program officer for religion and inclusive societies at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), where, for over a decade, she led research, training, and field-based initiatives on religion in conflict prevention and resolution. Earlier in her career, she supported humanitarian aid efforts for Syrian refugees in Jordan and researched religious trends through the Pluralism Project at Harvard University and the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center. She also worked as an educator in Abu Dhabi. Melissa was a KAICIID International Fellow in 2019 and a 2021-2022 Penn Kemble Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University.

She is inspired by Surat al-Furqan (25:63): “And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace.”