Melanie Gárate

Melanie Gárate, a Senior Associate at the Consensus Building Institute, is an experienced bilingual facilitator and mediator primarily focused on oceans & coasts, climate adaptation & mitigation, and environmental injustices. She designs and facilitates complex public participation and multi-stakeholder engagement processes to address socio-environmental conflicts in the U.S. and Latin America. Her work focuses on the intersection of climate change, social justice, racial justice, community organizing, and advocacy. Melanie has extensive experience facilitating government agencies, local organizations, and community groups. She is a trained mediator, in accordance with Massachusetts General Law Chapter 233 § 23C.

Prior to CBI, Melanie worked at the Stone Living Lab & Boston Harbor Now, focusing on nature-based approaches to climate resilience. She has also been the Climate Resiliency Manager at the Mystic River Watershed Association, and she has worked at Mass Audubon and the New England Aquarium. Melanie holds an M.S. in Marine Ecology and Climate Change from the University of Rhode Island, where she obtained an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to study mangrove ecology and perform community outreach in Puerto Rico.  

Selected Lead Projects

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority Environmental Justice Technical Working Group, New York, 2023-present. Lead facilitator for the first EJ TWG for the State of New York. Developed annotated agendas and meeting summaries, and coordinated with community groups, state agencies, offshore wind developers, and other stakeholders.

Northrop Grumman Bethpage Facility and Naval Weapons IRP Community Participation Work Group, Bethpage, NY, 2023-present. Established members of the CPWG and facilitated member meetings, including agenda design, coordination, and implementation. The Navy Grumman groundwater plume originates from the former Navy and Northrop Grumman sites located in the Town of Oyster Bay.

Pisces NOAA Northeast Collaboration Design, Northeast US, 2023-present. Facilitated collaborative groups to build relationships and provide information and guidance to the Pisces Foundation’s Environmental Education program (Pisces), NOAA’s B-WET Program, and NOAA’s Office of Education’s Environmental Literacy Program (NOAA) about what types of collaborative or network support would be helpful in the Northeastern United States.

Lower Mystic Waterfront Visioning Process, Greater Boston Area, 2023-present. Lead community engagement for a new resilient waterfront along the Mystic River in Massachusetts. This involves process design, interviews and focus groups with community leaders, and on-the-ground community engagement, specifically with priority populations.

Regional Assessment and Barriers Analysis – Mid-Hudson Clean Energy Hubs, Cornell Cooperative Extension, New York, 2023-present. Work closely with partners to develop and implement a stakeholder engagement and equity strategy to inform the RABA and then use the outcomes from the RABA and the stakeholder engagement process to develop the Equitable Engagement Plan by early 2024. This involves significant community engagement, stakeholder facilitation, and synthesis.

Maine Climate Council Community Resilience Work Group, Maine, 2023-2024. Planned and facilitated CRWG meetings with state of Maine co-chairs for the refresh of 2020’s Maine Won’t Wait Climate Action Plan. This includes regular planning meetings and development of detailed agendas with co-chairs, and facilitation of working group meetings.

Climate Action Teams, Paris Agreement, Article 6, Chile, 2023. Facilitated multi-sector meeting to build a shared vision of how Chile might augment its climate ambition via Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, including considering CAT as an enabling instrument for doing so. This work included discussing and agreeing upon aspects such as overarching process objectives and outputs; identification of priority stakeholders; and key aspects of process design and methodology.  

Blue Corridors Conference, World Wildlife Fund, Washington, D.C., 2023. Planned, designed, and facilitated the first Blue Corridors Conference focused on global whale conservation. Worked closely with the US and Australian WWF teams to coordinate agenda, participatory workshop exercises, and support on next steps.

Massachusetts Offshore Wind Habitat Working Group, Massachusetts, 2023-2024. Facilitated the working group, communicating closely with Massachusetts’s office of Coastal Zone Management and Mass Clean Energy Center to coordinate each working group meeting; created meeting agendas, and facilitated discussion with working group to highlight important issues with regard to offshore wind development in the Commonwealth.

BOEM Offshore Wind Stakeholder Engagement, Gulf of Maine, 2023-2024. Coordinated and co-facilitated state task forces on wind energy development for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the Gulf of Maine. Facilitated meetings, prepared logistics, communicated with multi-stakeholder groups, and developed meeting summaries.

Title VI Informal Resolution Agreement Joint Session, Scituate, MA 2023-2024.  Co-facilitator of meetings with complainants and recipients in the Title VI civil rights case.  The purpose of the meetings are to provide a space for the complainants to express their concerns and findings to recipients that will help inform the Informal Resolution Agreement between EPA and the recipients.

Title VI Informal Resolution Agreement Joint Session, North Brooklyn Pipeline & Liquified Natural Gas Facility, Brooklyn, NY, 2023. Co-facilitator of meetings with complainants and recipients in the Title VI civil rights case in Brooklyn, New York, amongst New York Department of Environmental Conservation, New York Department of Public Service, and National Grid. The purpose of the meetings are to provide a space for the complainants to express their concerns and findings to recipients that will help inform the Informal Resolution Agreement between EPA and the recipients.