Melody McMillan

Senior Executive Director of Seattle Promise Melody McMillan is a higher education executive with a strong record of leadership in student success initiatives, policy development, and institutional partnerships. As the executive lead for the nationally-recognized Seattle Promise program, she provides strategic and operational leadership at all three Seattle Colleges and all eligible Seattle public high schools.

McMillan leads efforts to improve college access, retention, and completion, particularly for underresourced students. Her work includes developing policies, redesigning financial aid processes, and coordinating multi-agency projects like the Math Innovation Taskforce to support students' academic achievement. Under her leadership, high school applications to the Seattle Colleges district have increased by more than 400%, and Seattle Promise scholars are being retained and completing at higher levels than their peers in the district and across the state. McMillan has led an innovative and effective strategy to increase student FAFSA completion, leading to more than 80% of Seattle Promise students completing a FAFSA or WASFA year-over-year, outpacing the 60% state average.

Prior to this role, McMillan held Advising Administration roles at North Seattle College and Northern Kentucky University, where she designed and implemented advising programs, enrollment strategies, institutional reforms, and university-wide training programs. She has extensive experience managing large-scale student and faculty/staff events, overseeing program assessment and continuous improvement, securing funding for impact projects, and building relationships with policymakers, funders, and system leaders. McMillan was recognized by the American Association of Women in Community Colleges and Georgia Southern University as a 40 Under 40 Achiever and has been awarded the Innovation of the Year award twice from the League for Innovation.

McMillan holds a Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from the University of Louisville and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts from Georgia Southern University (magna cum laude). Committed to improving education systems, she actively engages in policy development and reform advocacy, mentorship, and system improvement in complex environments.