Diana A. Melendez

Diana Melendez, LCSW, is Director of Progresando en Comunidad at the Institute for Family Services (IFS) and a member of the planning committee for the annual Liberation-based Healing Conference. Diana has worked within the education, child welfare, mental health and juvenile justice systems. Diana also has experience as an organizer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, and as a trainer of the “Undoing Racism- Community Organizing” workshop. Her interests include expanding on liberation-based practices that move towards systemic and relational equity by interrupting colonial projects of white supremacy, heteronormative patriarchy and capitalism through critical consciousness raising and collective-building processes across intersectionality. Diana received her MSW from NYU following a dual BA degree in Social Work and Psychology from Seton Hall University and has subsequently completed the Post-Graduate Training at IFS, where she is now faculty.