Melissa Muendel

Melissa Muendel is the Director of Fund Administration and the Director of Operational Assistance for Meritus Ventures, L. P. since October 2006.

Dr. Muendel was also Director of Operational Assistance for the Southern Appalachian Fund, L. P, a $12.5 million New Markets Venture Capital Company since May 2003.

She worked previously for eight years as Director of Research for Pathway Lending (formerly Southeast Community Capital - SCC) and Technology 2020, both in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Pathway Lending, a CDFI, is now located in Nashville.  She was responsible for writing grant applications for operating and lending capital and in charge of compliance and reporting to all the agencies with which SCC had grants and loans. She investigated in the following areas: demographic research, economic research, and market research.

Dr. Muendel has 38 years of experience in research and development in the social sciences and humanities. She is the past president of C2ER (formerly ACCRA, the Council for Community and Economic Research), and the former director of research at the Greater Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. Before that, she managed staff in the field and office for archaeological excavations and fund raising activities for more than sixteen (16) research and archaeological projects in the eastern United States and the Middle East. In addition, she was a Registered Representative with a private investment-banking firm in New York City.

Dr. Muendel has a Ph. D. in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee; a Masters in Near Eastern Archaeology from Drew University, Madison, New Jersey; and a B. A. in History from, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.