Hopie Melton

Hopie Melton is as a Senior Program Associate for the Center for Effective Government (CEG), where she primarily works on the Civic Leadership Academy (CLA), a six-month leadership development program for city, county, and nonprofit workers in the Chicagoland area. She also supports on practitioner events and development work on behalf of the Center. 

Hopie has worked with various non-profits and organizations inChicago and St. Louis, doing campaign finance research with Reform for Illinois, research into donor influence with UnKoch My Campus, and community engagement with Planned Parenthood of St. Louis. Additionally, she has worked with such political campaigns and civic engagement causes as BallotReady and UChiVotes within the University of Chicago. During her time as an undergraduate at UChicago, Hopie served as an academic resources intern with Chicago Studies, helping the department build its website and connect students to ways of exploring the city during COVID-19. 

Hopie holds a bachelor's in Public Policy and Sociology with a French minor and a Chicago Studies certificate from the University of Chicago, where her studies focused on labor history, gender theory, critical race studies, and urban sociology. Her thesis was titled, “Emotional Labors: Organizing Long-Term Care Workers in Chicago during the COVID-19 Pandemic."