Melanie Barron

Melanie Barron grew up in Dalton, GA, and earned her undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University. She joined United Campus Workers in 2012, where she co-founded the Graduate Workers Organizing Committee while earning her PhD in Geography from the University of Tennessee. She joined the staff of UCW Local 3865 in 2015 and participated in the defeat of a statewide privatization scheme through the Tennessee is Not for Sale campaign. She has co-led the team to expand United Campus Workers across the Southeast since 2017, and currently leads the UCW Fellowship, an intensive rank and file leadership development program. When she’s not organizing she’s hanging with her husband, Ben, and their lovely crew of friends and comrades in Knoxville, TN.