Raben

Melissa
Cedillo

Senior Associate

Melissa Cedillo is a senior associate in Raben's Issue Campaigns practice area, where she brings a passion for creating bridges between unlikely allies, driving up public awareness, and pushing the right levers to engender culture-changing movements.

Melissa has worked at the intersection of religion, ethics, and politics through a public policy lens. She worked on the campaigns team for Faith in Public Life to defend the integrity of the 2020 census and to promote Latino voter turnout and engagement. While at Faith in Public Life, Melissa developed a passion for bridging the gap between progressive politics and religion in the United States. In 2020, she led digital GOTV engagement in Alachua County.

She has also worked as a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter covering immigration, domestic workers, union work, and labor issues in the Latino community. Melissa also wrote extensively on creating comprehensive sex education that is culturally competent and inclusive. She also serves on the board of the HOPE Border Institute in El Paso, Texas, and has conducted communication work at the border.

Melissa has experience in both foreign and domestic policy with an emphasis on peace and conflict studies. She spent time in the west bank learning about the role religion plays in the region. She has also traveled to Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, and East Asia working on the role of religion in politics abroad.

Melissa is dedicated to learning about and advocating for preventative domestic violence policy, reproductive justice, immigration advocacy, promoting farmworker justice, pushing for prison divestment, and decarceration work. She received her bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount and her master’s degree from Harvard Divinity. Born and raised in Palm Desert, California, Melissa enjoys traveling, eating, and reading in her spare time.