Melissa Celko
Executive Director
Michigan

Melissa Celko is a collaborative, systems-oriented executive leader with more than 25 years of experience leading mission-driven organizations focused on community impact, health, and sustainability. As Executive Director of PINA, she brings deep expertise in strategic planning, fundraising, organizational development, and cross-sector partnerships—grounded in an approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of people, place, and purpose.

Melissa’s connection to permaculture began early, growing up organic gardening alongside her father, and was formally deepened when she earned her Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) in 2021. Today, she lives these principles through her small backyard homestead, where food production, ecological stewardship, and wellbeing function as an integrated system.

Her professional background in health and wellbeing aligns naturally with permaculture ethics and principles, informed by a holistic, systems-oriented perspective that understands human health, community resilience, and environmental vitality as inseparable. Melissa has contributed as a key member of teams that secured multimillion-dollar fundraising and grant initiatives, directed large-scale wellbeing programs, and cultivated collaborative cultures that deliver measurable impact—all while centering Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share.

She is passionate about advancing PINA’s mission through relationship-building, inclusive leadership, and regenerative solutions that strengthen whole systems and support long-term community and ecological wellbeing.