Melissa Hunter Gurney is Co-founder of the Lo—TEK Institute, an agent for nature based education and advocacy, as well as Black Land Ownership, a grassroots organization put in place to combat systemic oppression around property ownership in the Americas. Both entities work to engage urban youth in nature based initiatives and are working together on an ancestral artist residency in New York State.

With twenty years of pedagogy and leadership in the public, international, and private sector, Melissa also engages in extensive educational consulting with secondary schools as well as college advising for students and families.

Her written work tends to explore the multi-faceted experiences of Pan-American women and artists and can be found in various publications both nationally and internationally.