Melissa Gedney Joseph

A Few Career Highlights

PBS KIDS: Process, Products, Partnerships (2021-2025)

At PBS, I led cross-functional and cross-organization project teams to build impact for kids, families, and educators. Processes I am proud of that are invisible in the end product include:

Transparent, dynamic project plans that married budget, OKRs, and grant deliverables for visibility at every level
Team practices and rituals for uniting cross-department teams that did not see themselves as connected
Advocacy for involvement and fair compensation of end users as co-designers in our processes
Unification of a Spanish translation process across teams
Intentional marriage of department, funder, and partner goals to ensure grant projects were embedded within larger strategic priorities across teams
A committed, engaged network of PBS KIDS Early Learning Champions who benefited from professional development opportunities and served as learning ambassadors to their communities
Healthy, mutually beneficial partnerships with large national organizations including National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Parents as Teachers (PAT)

Some artifacts of my work contributed to include:

Harvard Graduate School of Education: Research, Teaching, Learning (2020)

After completing my Master’s in Technology, innovation, and Education in June of 2020, I supported the transition of one of HGSE’s most popular courses led be Dr. Karen Brennan, Designing for Learning by Creating. We took on the design challenge of creating an intimate, community-driven, hands-on learning course in an online forum across 24 time zones. (sketch notes by Exa Kutler)

Digital Promise: Community, Storytelling, Scale (2014-2019)

I started as the 19th employee of what is now a 200+ person organization. I supported the growth of the League of Innovative Schools, a network of forward thinking public school superintendents through

Managing a competitive application process
Supporting design and execution of conferences and events that included school visits
Facilitating working groups on topics of education innovation
Leading our communications and storytelling work
Launching a web product called “innovation portfolios,” empowering school districts to elevate examples of excellence on a national platform

Personal Projects (Ongoing)

Potato.community: An ongoing project and platform that helps people unlock their own cre-tater-tivity.
Funmingo.games: I co-founded a digital game company amidst the pandemic to address the challenge of people wanting to spend more time together, apart. We tested with 100 play testers, launched a successful Kickstarter, brought goof globally.
826DC Comedy Camp: I conceived, fundraised for, developed, and facilitated a comedy camp for middle school girls through 826DC called “Got Your Back.” Over the course of spring break, emerging comediennes learned the classic forms of sketch comedy, ultimately concluding in a bound blue book of their individual and collaborative sketches, with a final performance for their families.

Other Projects

Other organizations I have worked with not mentioned above include Alliance for Learning Innovation, Creative Computing Lab, Creative Mornings, Discovery Networks International, GBH, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, New York City Department of Education, The Jim Henson Company, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Washington Improv Theater, Wilson Center for International Scholars, and 826Digital.

A Few Career Highlights

PBS KIDS: Process, Products, Partnerships (2021-2025)

At PBS, I led cross-functional and cross-organization project teams to build impact for kids, families, and educators. Processes I am proud of that are invisible in the end product include:

Transparent, dynamic project plans that married budget, OKRs, and grant deliverables for visibility at every level

Team practices and rituals for uniting cross-department teams that did not see themselves as connected

Advocacy for involvement and fair compensation of end users as co-designers in our processes

Unification of a Spanish translation process across teams

Intentional marriage of department, funder, and partner goals to ensure grant projects were embedded within larger strategic priorities across teams

A committed, engaged network of PBS KIDS Early Learning Champions who benefited from professional development opportunities and served as learning ambassadors to their communities

Some artifacts of my work contributed to include:

Harvard Graduate School of Education: Research, Teaching, Learning (2020)

Digital Promise: Community, Storytelling, Scale (2014-2019)

Personal Projects (Ongoing)

Other Projects