FSU School of Communication alumna Melissa Angel (’16, M.S. Media and Communication Studies) will speak in Dr. Stephen McDowell’s Comparative Systems of Mass Communication class. Her presentation, titled, “Building Transnational Connections and Projects,” will be held virtually via Zoom on Tuesday, February 16 from 8:00 am to 9:15 am.

The Florida native is now based in Bonn, Germany, where, since 2019, she has been the leader of Global Landscapes Forum’s marketing and communication efforts. Having worked in the public and private sector for over ten years, Angel is a specialist in communications and behavior change. Most notably, she has worked with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the United Nations Climate Change secretariat.

During her time at FSU, Angel was recruited by Dr. Andy Opel, School of Communication Professor, to join FSU’s Public Interest Media and Communication (PIMC) master’s program where she learned valuable video and media production skills through her coursework.

“We met at one of the opening events for Cascades Park where she was working a booth for the Fish and Wildlife Department,” said Dr. Opel. “Melissa has a great combination of people skills, technical chops, and artistic vision that has led to a series of amazing opportunities doing important environmental communication work.”

In her first year of the PIMC program, she was awarded a six-month internship with the United Nations. Angel joined a large group of interns from all over the world who worked with the UN to prepare the COP 201 Paris Climate Accord in April of 2016. Because of her video and media production skills, Angel was the only intern of the group selected to go to Paris to cover the climate negations where she witnessed and recorded the historic agreement process.

Following her internship, Angel returned to FSU to complete her master’s degree and continued her work with the UN. When she graduated, she moved to San Francisco to be the communications director for Turtle Island Restoration Network where she worked with ocean nonprofits on activism and lobbying efforts to shut down the driftnet industry.

View Angel’s LinkedIn profile here, and email Stephen McDowell at steve.mcdowell@cci.fsu.edu to register for Tuesday’s Zoom event.