Melanie Harrison Okoro

Melanie Harrison Okoro (born 1982) is an American marine estuarine and environmental scientist. She is the founder, CEO, and principal of Eco-Alpha Environmental & Engineering Services. Okoro focuses on environmental aquatic biogeochemistry, professional natural resource management, and STEM diversity initiatives. She is early-career scientist to serve on the Council of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Early life and education Melanie Harrison Okoro was born in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Her family moved to Tuskegee, Alabama, where she grew up. Okoro first discovered her interest in environmental science through swimming and fishing with her great-grandmother and twin sister in Lake Martin, Alabama. She attended Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. She graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in biology, and finished her education when she received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2011.

Public engagement Okoro has promoted diversity in STEM fields, and held positions in organizations related to diversity and inclusion. and was the Diversity & Inclusion task-force chair. She was a member of the Earth Science Women's Network's Leadership Board, and a member of Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth and Space Science's leadership board. 2011 Invited session speaker, Society for Advancing Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) 2020 High Speed Rail Small Business Partner Spotlight 2022 40 Under 40, Comstock's Magazine

Selected publications