Melodie Graves earned her Associate’s Degree from Amarillo College and her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from West Texas A&M University, both in Communication. Melodie has worked in higher education for more than 13 years because she truly feels that the only way to grow is to be educated. In 2010, Melodie then started at Amarillo College and over the years has gone from advising to in August of 2019 Melodie being named the Associate Director of Academic Advising at Amarillo College. At AC Melodie also serves at the Chair of the Diversity Team, and a member of the Anti-Racism Taskforce. Additionally, Melodie was selected to be part of the Presidential Leadership Institute 2017-2018 and she is a trained Donna Beegle Poverty Coach. Melodie is also the Foster Care Liaison and the Justice Involved Advocate for the College. In the community, Melodie stays extremely busy serving on 9 different boards. She is the 2nd Vice President of the Amarillo Branch NAACP, the President of North Heights Advisory Association, and was selected to the Board of Directors for Opportunity School. Melodie also serves on the Advisory Board for the Leaders Readers Network and a board member for the Friends of the Library. Melodie is the President of the Amarillo United Citizen’s Forum Board, serves on the Rezoning Committee for the North Heights Neighborhood Plan, and a member of Junior League Amarillo/Canyon. Recently, Melodie traveled to Texas State University where she gave her first TedX Talk on the Power of the Amplified Voice. Melodie is the mother of Ashton and he is a 12-year-old who loves basketball and has so much love to give this world. He is a 7th grader at Austin Middle School.