Who We Are
Mel Motel
Founder, Director, Restorative Practices Trainer
As founder and Director of the Just Schools Project, Mel provides training, consultation, coaching, and other support to people in schools who are using restorative practices to build community and respond to harmful behavior without relying on punishment or exclusion.
Mel draws from a diverse background in both K-12 education and the prisoner justice movement. Prior to founding Just Schools Project, Mel coordinated a restorative justice-based program for formerly incarcerated adults at the Brattleboro Community Justice Center, organized around issues affecting prisoners and their families with the Human Rights Defense Center, and taught middle and high school students at an alternative school program. Mel is currently on the faculty of the Community College of Vermont, where she teaches “Community and Restorative Justice."
Since founding Just Schools Project in 2013, Mel has worked with fifteen K-12 schools and hundreds of students, teachers, administrators, and other school staff throughout New England. She has also provided trainings and consultations for a number of organizations, agencies, and universities exploring or implementing restorative practices.
Mel holds a BA in English from the University of Wisconsin and an MA in Teaching for Social Justice from Marlboro College. She is also a licensed Vermont Grade 7 - 12 English teacher.
Contact:
mel@justschoolsproject.org
802-490-5429
Founder, Director, Restorative Practices Trainer
As founder and Director of the Just Schools Project, Mel provides training, consultation, coaching, and other support to people in schools who are using restorative practices to build community and respond to harmful behavior without relying on punishment or exclusion.
Mel draws from a diverse background in both K-12 education and the prisoner justice movement. Prior to founding Just Schools Project, Mel coordinated a restorative justice-based program for formerly incarcerated adults at the Brattleboro Community Justice Center, organized around issues affecting prisoners and their families with the Human Rights Defense Center, and taught middle and high school students at an alternative school program. Mel is currently on the faculty of the Community College of Vermont, where she teaches “Community and Restorative Justice."
Since founding Just Schools Project in 2013, Mel has worked with fifteen K-12 schools and hundreds of students, teachers, administrators, and other school staff throughout New England. She has also provided trainings and consultations for a number of organizations, agencies, and universities exploring or implementing restorative practices.
Mel holds a BA in English from the University of Wisconsin and an MA in Teaching for Social Justice from Marlboro College. She is also a licensed Vermont Grade 7 - 12 English teacher.
Contact:
mel@justschoolsproject.org
802-490-5429
Photo by Kate Allen
Mel frequently collaborates with other trainers, facilitators, educators, and community partners.
(Right) Mel, with restorative practices trainers Cate Woolner and Kara McLaughlin, after their presentation at the 2016 Safe and Healthy Schools Summit in Holyoke, MA.
(Below) Mel moderating the "Kicked Out!" panel in Plainfield, VT, 2014.
Photo by Will Bennington
