Melanie Houston is earning her masters in social work at The Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. With her masters study, she will be specializing in System Dynamics and concentrating on social justice and systems of oppression. She attended Duke University for undergraduate study of sociology and documentary studies. During undergrad, she was also involved in group dialogue work and experiential social justice retreats. From these experiences, she became involved with Sustained Dialogue. Since then, with Sustained Dialogue she has travelled to and assisted with or led trainings at Appalachian State University, UNC-Wilmington, SIUE, and Earlham College. In her spare time she loves baking, watching documentaries and cuddling with her new kitten, Mateo.