Melissa Walden Joins Crossroads as Director of Advancement

After a nationwide search led by the consulting firm Carney Sandoe & Associates, Crossroads School has appointed Melissa Walden as the new director of advancement. She succeeds Colleen Bartlett, who retired from Crossroads at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

For 11 years, Melissa served as the director of development at the Paideia School, a progressive independent school in Atlanta serving 1,020 students in pre-K through 12th grade. In this senior leadership role, Melissa managed the Development Office staff, comprising annual giving, stewardship, alumni relations, planned giving, and database/gifts officers. She oversaw the school’s most recent capital campaign, cultivated major donor prospects and solicitations, and collaborated with the Board of Trustees and senior school administrators.

Melissa first joined the Paideia School faculty in 2006 after being a parent at the school for many years. Prior to her appointment as director of development, she served as gifts manager as well as director of annual giving, providing her an in-depth understanding of the various functions of independent school fundraising, including volunteer management, annual giving campaigns, leadership donor cultivation, and special events. Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Georgia. 

“I am thrilled that Melissa Walden is joining Crossroads as the director of advancement,” said Head of School Mariama Richards. “She has spent the last 15 years of her professional career in the Development Office of the Paideia School, which shares Crossroads’ commitments to diversity, social responsibility and empathy. Melissa brings to Crossroads a wealth of experience in strategic fundraising, staff management and donor relations, which will serve us well as we continue to raise funds for the Bezdek Center for the Performing Arts, the final initiative in our Worlds Unimagined Capital Campaign.”

“I am delighted to be joining the Crossroads community this year,” shared Melissa. “For the last several months, I have acquainted myself with the School, met/talked/Zoomed with members of the faculty, staff and Board, and recently had the opportunity to spend a day on campus. With each of these encounters, my appreciation for the School, and how its founding commitments are clearly steeped into what happens there, have grown. It’s been a pleasure to step into the role of director of advancement and partner with such a committed team and dedicated parent body to propel Crossroads forward.”