Melissa Berkey-Gerard

Social Justice

Melissa Berkey-Gerard seeker of the Spirit in all places– in nature, collaborating in community, struggling for justice, slowing down to walk at the pace of a toddler. She seeks to create space for others to listen deeply to what matters most to them, and to live from that place. She has extensive work with traumatized individuals and communities, and desire to help others find what heals them, what re-connects them, what energizes them.

For over 20 years, Melissa has worked for justice, including in Philadelphia, and New York City, in Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan, seeking out the intersection of spirituality and justice. For 5 years, she served as the Psychosocial Care Coordinator for Community Peacemaker Teams, creating space, practices and structures to uphold peacemakers. She co-founded, along with incarcerated women and women living on the outside, an Associate’s Degree program at a prison in New York City, and taught undergraduate students as a professor at the Oregon Extension of Eastern University. Alongside her spiritual direction practice, she offers workshops, retreats, and facilitation for both faith communities and nonprofits. Melissa is a graduate of Eastern University (BA) and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv), and she received her spiritual direction certification through Kairos School of Spiritual Formation. She has extensive experience and training in trauma-responsive care and behavioral health. Melissa has also served as Interim Pastor at two congregations. While she calls home a Mennonite congregation in Philadelphia, she works with people of all faith backgrounds, and those not identified with a particular faith, in spiritual direction, retreats and workshops. She approaches her work from an anti-racist, undoing oppressions lens. Melissa is also a parent and a partner, a yoga practitioner and a city gardener.