Melissa Risteff is the CEO & Co-Founder of Couragion, a women-owned educational technology social enterprise that is generously supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), AT&T Aspire, and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Couragion strongly believes that career literacy should be integrally woven into STEM and computer science education to improve classroom relevance, better inform student choice, and increase retention in real-world career paths.

Melissa spent a large part of her career at General Electric and Sun Microsystems where she was a Six Sigma Black Belt and ran software engineering and data analytics organizations. Melissa has a Master's degree in Computer & Information Technology Management from the University of Denver and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Bentley University. When not focused on education transformation, you can find her in the Pilates studio, on the trail, in the kitchen, or traveling the globe (42 countries and counting).