Melanie G. Snyder

Melanie G. Snyder is the Executive Director of the Lancaster County Reentry Management Organization (RMO), an initiative in Pennsylvania to improve community safety by helping people transitioning out of prison to become productive citizens and remain crime-free. She is an NIC-certified Offender Workforce Development Specialist, a certified Global Career Development Facilitator, and a certified instructor for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Healing Communities model. She is also a restorative justice mediator and trainer. She teaches college writing courses, teaches conflict resolution skills to community, school and faith groups, and speaks regularly to a variety of audiences about restorative justice, criminal justice, and related topics.

Prior to Melanie’s involvement with the RMO, she spent several years researching and writing the book Grace Goes to Prison: An Inspiring Story of Hope and Humanity (Brethren Press, 2009), which tells the true story of a woman who volunteered in Pennsylvania’s state prisons for over 30 years, creating inmate education and reentry programs based on principles of restorative justice. After Grace Goes to Prison was published, Melanie traveled throughout the United States, doing speaking engagements and meeting with other reentry and restorative justice professionals to discuss criminal justice issues and exchange information and ideas.