Dr. Melanie Booth is the principal of Nectary Solutions, where she leads cross-sector projects and partners with colleges, universities, systems, states, communities, industry bodies, and organizations to create and facilitate transformative initiatives that connect learning to work. She is also a board member of EDvance College. Over her career, she has worked directly and indirectly with hundreds of colleges, universities, non-profits, accreditation bodies, government agencies, consulting organizations, and industry associations—both in the United States and internationally—to drive systemic transformation across the learn-and-work ecosystem.
Her expertise spans employability and skills development, experiential and community-based learning, recognition of prior and non-formal learning, competency-based education, skills-based and workforce-focused microcredentials, heutagogy, work-based learning, and quality assurance in higher education. She particularly focuses on innovations that expand opportunity, recognize contributions, improve relevance, and support social and economic mobility for learners / earners.
She has held executive leadership roles, including Executive Director of the Higher Learning Commission’s Credential Lab; Vice President of Educational Programs & Engagement at the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements; Founding Executive Director of The Quality Assurance Commons; and Vice President of Educational Programs at the WASC Senior College and University Commission. She is also the co-founder of the international Heutagogy of Practice, focused on developing learner agency and voice. In these roles, she has contributed to both national and international initiatives that strengthen the value and recognition of learning, regardless of its source.