OchoTEEN

NPR radio producer, immigration reporter and former teacher Melissa Giraud is herself the child of immigrants. Her mother is from French Canada and her father is from Dominica. Melissa and her two sisters were raised in a Puerto Rican enclave in Springfield, Massachusetts, a depressed city that has relied on several generations of immigrants to keep it alive.

After graduating with a B.A. from the University of Chicago, Melissa stayed in Chicago and worked in public housing and then in public education as a fourth grade teacher in the Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen. Her fourth grade students were bright and inspiring. So inspiring that Melissa decided their perspectives and voices had to be injected into the debate on education. She decided they needed to be on the radio! (Melissa was also inspired by then education reporter, Ira Glass.)

Melissa moved to DC and got her start in radio as an intern then producer on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. She spent many happy years at NPR where she also worked as a producer on All Things Considered, Morning Edition and the now-defunct music and culture show Anthem. Melissa also co-created and produced a year-long radio series and Web show for NPR's All Things Considered called Along for the Ride. She worked with and learned from some of the best in the business, including hosts Renee Montagne, Lynn Neary and Scott Simon.

She left DC and NPR HQ to be closer to family and to produce OchoTEEN. OchoTEEN pieces have aired on Weekend Edition Saturday, The World, Marketplace, Latino USA, and Chicagoland´s 848 and, in Spanish, on WRTE 90.5 FM. Melissa currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with her partner, Andrew Grant-Thomas. She is still in touch with her former students and hopes more of them come to visit soon!