Melody Martinez
Melody Martínez is the founder and principal at Acorde Consulting. She is an experienced consultant, trainer, coach, speaker, and donor organizer. She has over a decade of experience supporting small and large organizations in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors in making powerful organizational changes.
Born in Massachusetts and currently based in Portland, Oregon, Melody is the proud first-generation daughter of Afro-Caribbean, working-class immigrants from the Dominican Republic. She is bicultural and bilingual.
In roles at Social Justice Fund and the New Economy Coalition, Melody organized and trained community members to understand their power and privilege, fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars for social change, and participate across differences in collaborative, democratic decision-making.
Using lessons gained from her lived experience, via consulting practice, and in collaboration with various consulting firms like Resolutions Northwest, Class Action, and Harmonize, Melody has supported dozens of mission-driven organizations in cultural transformation and resilience. Her approach to facilitation, coaching, and speaking is compassionate, candid, and outcomes-focused. She is deeply analytical and precise, particularly when helping leaders and groups unearth inequities and design policies and practices that operationalize racial, economic, and disability justice in the workplace. Melody is fiercely dedicated to amplifying the voices and celebrating the strengths of people of color and all those who are furthest from justice. As a result of her work, many of her clients have made meaningful culture shifts and have become more values-aligned.