Melissa Noel is an award-winning international journalist, host and media entrepreneur.  She has built a distinguished career in television news and digital media with work that centers on reporting issues impacting the Black diaspora internationally and developing  and managing strategic content partnerships.

Melissa is the founder and managing director of Mel&N Media Group, an enterprise rooted in strategic communications and brand development. She is also a News and Politics editor at ESSENCE where she ideates, pitches and  produces, social justice, race, culture, Caribbean and global African diasporic-focused content across company platforms, including ESSENCE magazine and ESSENCE Festival of Culture. An experienced travel reporter and Caribbean expert, Melissa is a contributing writer for National Geographic Travel and Trip Savvy.com.

She is the creator of Destination Diaspora®, a docuseries and storytelling platform that highlights the impact of the African Diaspora in travel, culture and lifestyle. Melissa is a grantee of the renowned Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting and an Ethel Payne Reporting Fellow for foreign correspondence  in Africa. A successful media entrepreneur, she was named one of the Top 50 Caribbean American Entrepreneurs two years in a row by the Carib Biz Network in 2020 and 2021.

A proud Guyanese American with over a decade of reporting and production experience, Melissa has made a proven impact at the intersections of media, entrepreneurship and social impact.