Melanca Clark

Melanca Clark leads a consulting practice that partners with nonprofits, funders, and creative leaders to shape strategy and drive impact. She served as the President and CEO of the Hudson-Webber Foundation from 2016 to 2023, overseeing the administration of more than 240 grants totaling over $36 million to improve the quality of life for Detroiters, and launching the Michigan Justice Fund, a funders’ collaborative advancing effective and equitable justice policy in the state of Michigan housed at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, among other initiatives..

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Prior to joining the Hudson-Webber Foundation, Clark served in key leadership roles in the Obama administration including as chief of staff of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, a grant-making component of the department, and was also Chief of Staff for President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Clark also had roles with the DOJ’s Office for Access to Justice, and with the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she helped advance President Obama’s justice policy priorities, and developed and implemented a number of strategies for enhancing fairness in the criminal and juvenile system.

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Clark also served as counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, was a John J. Gibbons Fellow in Public Interest and Constitutional Law at the Gibbons Law Firm, and was a Skadden Fellow and assistant counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. She was also a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr., of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, and a litigation associate in the New York office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

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Clark serves on the boards of the Center for Employment Opportunities, the Michigan Center for Youth Justice, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Sixth Amendment Center and was a member of the DOJ Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition.  She is a recipient of the Council of Michigan Foundation's Dr. Gerald K. Smith Award for Philanthropy, and the National Association of Women Business Owners "Greater Good" Award, and has been a Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit Gala Honoree and recognized as Crain’s 100 Most Influential Woman in Michigan and as a Woman of Excellence by the Michigan Chronicle.