Melissa Boughton joined Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) in 2021 as a Senior SOLVE Communications Advocate, and now serves as the organization’s Communications Director. Before joining SCSJ, she headed communications at the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law School.
Melissa also spent a decade as a journalist. She worked the courts and law beat at NC Policy Watch in Raleigh, and the crime and courts beats at The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C.; The Winchester Star in Winchester, Va.; and The Kerrville Daily Times in Kerrville, TX. While reporting in Charleston, she was part of the team named a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting for coverage of the police killing of Walter Scott. She also covered the Mother Emanuel church shootings.
Melissa is a Texas native, but has lived in North Carolina since 2016. She is a 2010 graduate of the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas.