Meet Our Team
Melissa Strova-Valencia
Program Manager, Arts Integration
Meli is an Abya Yala’s artivist, actress, storyteller, dancer, musician, and educator, native of the occupied territory of the Chibcha, Caribes and Arawak people (Colombia.)
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from San Buenaventura University in Colombia, a master’s degree in Advanced Theatre Studies from La Rioja International University in Spain, and a diploma in Art in Early Childhood from the Ministry of Culture and San Buenaventura University in Colombia. She also has studies in neurobiology and art therapy.
Meli has more than thirteen years of experience working with early childhood teaching music, theater and preschool education, generating pedagogical, creative and innovative strategies using art as a transversal axis. She is currently based in Washington, DC and works as a teaching artist for early childhood and youth at Children’s House of Washington, Sitar Arts Center, Bancroft Elementary School, Springwell School, Gala Hispanic Theater, Inspired Child, Musitodo, and at TELAS which she founded and works as organizer, facilitator, and artist.
Her approach is developed in Abya Yala’s social theater with social focus and collective creation and in art therapy with a greater depth in drama therapy and music therapy, using theater and music as a therapeutic tool to work with communities who have suffered violence, especially early childhood.