Melissa Porrey is the Account Management Director at The KonTerra Group with over 13 years of experience in the mental health field and humanitarian sector.

Melissa first joined KonTerra in 2021 as the Project Director for the USAID Staff Care Service Center, a project that provides staff care, wellness, and resilience support to USAID’s 11,000 employees and their families.

Melissa is a people- and planet-loving humanitarian who found her passion for mental health when she left a career in journalism to engage with the world as a student, volunteer, and impassioned traveler, living and studying abroad in Australia and Ghana.

As a licensed clinical mental health counselor with a focus on grief, trauma, and humanitarian work, Melissa’s experience includes managing a global resiliency program for the American Red Cross; building and delivering psychological first aid and other psychoeducational curricula for service members, veterans, and military families; and overseeing a clinical inpatient and outpatient mental health program for survivors of traumatic injury. She’s also served as an interventionist for a DOD-funded PTSD research study and oversaw the casework department for a nonprofit that provides bereavement support to the families of fallen service members.

Melissa is also a published writer who works as a freelancer contributing articles related to mental and overall health. When she’s not working with others on their mental wellness, you’ll find her on a yoga mat, in the climbing gym, or out on a hiking trail. Melissa lives in Northern VA with her husband and two children.