Melissa B. Coleman, Esq.
Vice President, PNI Foundation
Melissa B. Coleman, Esq., is an accomplished and seasoned development executive with two decades of experience in nonprofit management fundraising, campaign strategy, planning and operations. She currently serves as Vice President of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute Foundation (PNIF) where she leads the strategic planning, programmatic development and fundraising efforts in support of the innovative neuroscience care, clinical trials, translational research and educational mission of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute. She also is responsible for the financial management of the Foundation and strategic oversight of PNIF communications and marketing.
Prior to joining PNIF, Melissa served as Chief of Development Strategy and Operations for the Advancement division at Cedars-Sinai. As a member of Cedars-Sinai Advancement’s executive leadership team, she led the strategic planning and execution of Cedars-Sinai’s $350M and $600M consecutive fundraising campaigns as well as the planning of their current $1B effort. She also led the strategy and development of the operations functions of Development and oversaw the data management, reporting and analytics, prospect research, gift administration, donor relations, annual giving, development communications and the special events teams. During her 15-year tenure, Melissa was instrumental in building key fundraising infrastructure to support higher volumes of giving and for leading the creation of programs to broaden donor constituencies such as their grateful patient program and digital fundraising.
Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, Melissa was a development consultant for Arroyo Vista Family Health Center, a nonprofit primary healthcare corporation where she helped develop and execute diverse fundraising strategies. Before that she was the Capital Campaign Director and Development Manager for New Economics for Women (NEW), an economic and community development non-profit. At NEW she led the strategic planning and development effort to build a new clinic in the medically underserved area of PICO-Union in Los Angeles, where she achieved 80% of the fundraising target in 9 months.
Prior to joining NEW, Melissa ran the Young Women at Risk Violence Intervention Program (YWAR) with the LA City Commission on the Status of Women for at-risk girls in Los Angeles-based continuation high schools that focused on empowering young women with basic life skills and healthy behaviors.
Melissa is a lawyer by training and graduated from Southwestern University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in California. She also holds a B.A. in Linguistics and Spanish from the University of California, Los Angeles.