Melvyn is currently the Director of Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (SINA), a partnership between Trinity College, the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and Hartford Hospital, to promote community development in the Greater Frog Hollow neighborhood. Before coming to Hartford, Melvyn served as Director of the Community Building and Organizing Initiative at NeighborWorks America; as the Loan Fund Director of YouthBuild USA; and as the Executive Director of Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation in Roxbury, MA. He has a long history of working constructively in multi-ethnic partnerships and coalitions. He joined the efforts of neighborhood residents, small business owners and agency directors to organize the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and served as board president of this coalition for two years. Melvyn has taught at Tufts University’s Department of Urban and Environment Policy and the University of Massachusetts’ (Boston Campus) College of Public and Community Service. Melvyn also served as Assistant Dean at Yale College with a focus on supporting the minority student population. As an independent consultant, he has worked for The Community Development Collaborative in Pittsburgh; the Barr Foundation; the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance and Neighbor2Neighbor in Massachusetts. He has written for national journals on housing issues and in local Spanish language newspapers on transit oriented development.

www.sinainc.org

• James Jennings and Melvyn Colon. “The Demonstration Disposition Program in Boston, Massachusetts: Lessons for Neighborhood Empowerment and Neighborhood Revitalization.” Contemporary Patterns of Politics, Praxis and Culture/The National Political Science Review 10 (2005): 85-99.
• Melvyn Colon. “The Urban University and Community Development.” In Innovative Approaches to Education and Community Service, edited by Caroy Ferguson and Jemadari Kamara. Boston: The College of Public and Community Service, UMass Boston, 1993.
• Melvyn Colon, Marie Kennedy, and Michael Stone. “A Metropolitan University and Community Development.” Metropolitan Universities 1, no. 3 (Fall/Winter 1990/1991): 61-74.
• Melvyn Colon. “Bridgewater”, “Amesbury”, and “Sandwich.” In Proposition 2 1/2: Its Impact on Massachusetts, edited by Larry Susskind. Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain Publishers, Inc., 1983.

Recent Non-Journal Articles:

• Melvyn Colon. “The Sword and the Shield.” Shelterforce, The journal of affordable housing and community building (December 14, 2011), National Housing Institute.
• Nelson Merced and Melvyn Colon. “NWO’s as Institutions for Asset Building.” Institute on Assets and Social Policy online journal (March 2006), The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University.