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Kimberly Melton

Chief of Staff, Chair Deborah Kafoury, Board of County Commissioners, Multnomah County, Ore.

About Kimberly Melton

Kimberly Melton first joined the Chair’s office in 2015, focusing on youth and family issues, early learning, public health and deepening partnerships with underserved communities. In the role of senior policy advisor, she led critical policy work transforming our investments in culturally specific services, SUN schools and supports for immigrants and refugees.

In February 2018, Kim was named chief of staff, responsible for developing the Chair’s overall policy agenda and managing day-to-day operations and supervision of the chair’s office and staff.

A graduate of Stanford University, Kim is an award-winning statehouse and education journalist who reported for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and The Oregonian. She joined Stand for Children in 2011 where she served as statewide Communications and Policy Director and Policy and Community Organizing Director for the Multnomah County area.

Kim earned a bachelor’s degree in African-American Studies with a minor in Communications at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where she helped start a summer program for young people. While earning a master’s degree in Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, Kim worked as a reporter for African American newspapers in Sacramento and San Francisco.