Melissa Marie Jekel
Melissa Jekel is the Director of Development based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a professional focus on advancing equity, strengthening community systems, and expanding access to opportunity for underserved populations. Her work is grounded in a commitment to people-centered impact, with an emphasis on creating pathways that reduce barriers and ensure individuals are seen, supported, and given meaningful opportunities to move forward. Across her career, she has consistently brought a values-driven approach rooted in accountability, compassion, and long-term community benefit.
Melissa’s journey in the cannabis and social equity space began around 2019, when she worked with medical marijuana certifications alongside Dr. Proctor during Michigan’s transition period before a fully licensed market existed. In 2020, she joined Franklin Fields, a vertically integrated cannabis company, where she started in storefront operations and advanced into leadership roles, including Customer Success Manager. During her time there, she supported community engagement strategy and helped implement social equity programming aligned with the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency’s All-Star Program. Her efforts contributed to meaningful community reinvestment, including approximately $55,000 returned to the community in 2024, as well as supporting the creation of Sweet Justice, a beverage initiative donating proceeds to the Great Lakes Expungement Network.
In her current role as Director of Development with the Great Lakes Expungement Network, Michigan’s only fee-free expungement program, Melissa works to expand access to legal relief by connecting individuals with attorneys, obtaining certified judgments of sentencing, and helping close gaps left by self-guided expungement processes. She is also a certified event planner through the state and has qualified for Michigan’s Social Equity Program based on residency in a disproportionately impacted area, a prior marijuana conviction, and experience as a former caregiver. In addition, she is developing initiatives to improve access to trusted community resources and is contributing to a research initiative with the state’s Task Force 1620 focused on expanding veteran access to cannabis while studying outcomes related to substance use disorder and ALS.
• Northwood University - BS
• Cannabis Regulatory Agency Social Equity Work Group
• Felons Do It Better
• Sons and Daughters United
• Students for Sensible Drug Policy
• Great Lakes Expungement Network (volunteer before employment)
• Sons and Daughters United Family Connection Grant
• ALS Association Patient Advocate
What do you attribute your success to?
I care too much, that's my biggest blessing and my biggest curse. I want to save the world. My passion and wanting to help people runs deep in my family. But what really drives me now is working on a legacy and remembrance project for my father, who was a homicide victim in Grand Rapids in June of 2022. My dad suffered from substance abuse disorder, and when he died, the police told me that unfortunately, things like this happen when you live the kind of life that your father did, and I should just be thankful we found his body. That doesn't make my dad's life less valuable. My dad helped a lot of people get clean or find recovery. I always refer to his house as the church of many colors, because these issues affect everybody. Going through that trauma made me realize how fragmented the system is and how hard it is to get help. A lot of people will go to resource fairs thinking they're going to get help, and then they leave without accomplishing anything, and they fall off. That's why I'm working on projects to have resources that are more readily available and trusted, because the community doesn't trust a lot of these organizations after being let down so many times.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Back in 7th or 8th grade band class, my teacher Mrs. Benjamin said something to me when I was really frustrated, and my friend Javi was there. I don't even remember exactly what she said to me, but I was about to cry because I was so frustrated, and she said, 'Missy, do not cry, because they'll know they're getting to you.' That advice has stuck with me my whole life. In those situations, growing up and even now, I remember: don't cry, because they'll know they're getting to you. Don't give them that satisfaction. Because especially when you're super frustrated, it's not just because you're upset, you're just frustrated and you don't know what else to do. But you can't let them see that.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Consistency and just being driven. When I came into the cannabis space, a lot of people present it as all you get is unwanted advances, but I sold over a million dollars per year and I never had these weird propositions. Maybe it's how you present yourself. The glass ceiling does still exist, but being a woman in cannabis, people already judge me because of the cannabis. It's an interesting thing, especially in Michigan where things are so weird right now. You just gotta keep at it, and if you're passionate about it, remember what you're in it for and why you're doing it. Sometimes it's hard, but I got into cannabis because of medical, because I've seen how it changes people and how it helps with symptom management for a lot of diseases. For orphan diseases like ALS, it helps with appetite increase and managing secretions. We shouldn't have to still fight for our right, but that's where we're at.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
People not understanding how cannabis can help others is the biggest challenge right now. There are so many regulatory issues in Michigan. For example, if the Cannabis Regulatory Agency is investigating a license and that license closes, the investigation closes too, so they can just open up on the street under some other name. They've been working on changes to the current law for years now. It's crazy that not everybody is willing to accept cannabis money. I had situations where Habitat for Humanity in Lansing couldn't work with us because they were under the national chapter in Washington, D.C., even though other Habitat chapters in Michigan would work with us. It's weird that people still view cannabis as a gateway drug. The people that regulate it don't really understand how any of it works. Things are so weird right now in Michigan, especially with all the regulatory issues and the stigma that still exists.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, integrity, and not being greedy are the most important values to me. I always say I just fell from Honest Abe's apple tree. This is just my life, and it's always been my life, just being too honest because I'm honest and I don't have anything to hide. When I was probably 10 years old, we were up in Traverse City and had gotten fireworks that were illegal in Michigan because they left the ground. When the police showed up and asked if we had any more, everybody else said no, but I said yeah, we have a whole big bag full. I used to think that the world needed more love, but then I had a conversation with a friend who said he disagreed. He said the world doesn't need more love, it needs more compassion, because people do messed up things for love. He was right. If people just treated people with kindness and how they would like to be treated, the world would be so much better.