Melissa Hoover, Democracy at Work Institute, Oakland, California (Cooperatives

Melissa Hoover is the founding Executive Director of the Democracy at Work  Institute, the think-and-do-tank that expands worker cooperatives as a strategy to  address economic and racial inequality. A leader in the worker ownership movement  for over fifteen years, Melissa helped start and grow the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the national grassroots membership organization for worker-owned businesses.  She was a cooperative business developer for many years with the Arizmendi Association of  Cooperatives in Oakland, doing business and capital planning for two startups, training cooperative  members, and serving as CFO in the first year of each startup's operations. In 2018, Melissa was named  an Executive Fellow of the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the ICA Group/Local Enterprise Assistance Fund, The  Working World, and Safe Passages of Oakland, and serves as a strategic advisor to foundations,  investors, nonprofits, local governments and other organizations that want to incorporate worker  ownership into their economic development and community wealth-building programs. Melissa  attended Stanford University on a full scholarship, earning a BA in History with a research focus on  immigrant women's role building cooperative movements in the U.S.