Melissa Noel

Melissa Noel is a multimedia journalist and media entrepreneur with over a decade of experience covering travel, culture, race, and lifestyle topics for television, print, and digital media. She is known for dynamic coverage that consistently highlights underreported stories impacting the African American Community, the Caribbean region, and the Global African diaspora.

Experience

Melissa is a contributing news and politics editor at Essence.com. She has also written for National Geographic, NBC News, Huffpost.com, Caribbean Beat Magazine, Lonely Planet, and theGrio.com. Her work has also regularly appeared on One Caribbean Television, CBS News USVI, and ABC News. 

Through her production company Mel&N Media, LLC, Melissa produces multimedia content for television and online news outlets, provides hosting, voiceover, and news correspondent services, as well as media consulting for travel brands and cultural organizations.

She has traveled to and reported from over 35 countries on four continents. For the past seven years—since making the switch from network television news, she’s explored the Caribbean region as a correspondent for outlets like One Caribbean TV, Huffpost.com, and NBC News.

Her travel content focused on culture, climate change, and sustainability has actively altered how stories of the Caribbean region and wider African Diaspora are reported, and she has aided in expanding equitable coverage at several mainstream digital news outlets. 

Melissa is a thought leader, highly sought-after panelist, and featured speaker, regularly contributing to media, travel, and culture industry conversations at the United Nations, University of the West Indies, and The New York Times, among others. 

Education

Melissa is a summa cum laude graduate of Howard University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism and Caribbean studies. She holds a Master of Arts degree in journalism from The City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism, where she specialized in broadcast media and urban reporting. 

In 2020, Melissa was selected as an Ethel Payne Reporting Fellow for foreign correspondence in Africa and as a member of The Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium Advisory Board. She was also named one of the Top 50 influential Caribbean American Entrepreneurs by the Caribbean Business Network during that year. She is also an alumna of the International Center for Journalists' "Bringing Home The World" reporting fellowship and a grantee of the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting. 

At the start of 2021, Melissa was recognized with a Caribbean Impact Award for outstanding achievement and contributions to the field of journalism and the Caribbean region. 

Melissa is a proud Guyanese American based in the New York City area. 

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