Meleani Bates

Meleani Bates

Adjunct Faculty

Meleani is a first-generation professional, queer, neurodiverse, light-skinned Black woman with African ancestry, Jamaican heritage, born into low SES, but is no longer.

As an equity scholar-practitioner, Meleani consistently focuses on liberation, justice, intersectionality and belonging, while continuing to embolden their critical analysis of power. Meleani currently serves as a Racial Equity and Inclusion Specialist at Prosper Portland, leading the economic development agency’s internal racial equity work. Most recently, Meleani worked as an Equity Consultant at Clark College deliberately focused on racial equity and student success and developed an equity-focused training program for incoming Success Coaches using a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework. Prior to her time with Clark College, Meleani worked at Reed College briefly as a Program Coordinator for the Multicultural Resource Center, and held various student support roles at Clark College and Oregon State. Meleani is a proud graduate of the Lewis & Clark College Student Affairs Administration Program. She also earned Bachelor of Science degrees in African American Studies and Women Studies from Oregon State University.