melissa carter - BIOGRAPHY

Melissa Carter trains entrepreneurs, business owners, corporate execs and home-based professionals to reach their fullest potential. Melissa has appeared on radio, television, podcasts and in print throughout the nation, and has served as speaker for many corporate and charitable events.

As a member of morning radio shows for nearly 20 years, Melissa could be heard on 99X, Q100 and B98.5 in Atlanta. She also served as a Co-Host on Westwood One’s “Radio with a Twist,” the first syndicated terrestrial radio show geared toward the LGBT+ community, which could be heard in cities across the U.S. She is also the Host of the podcasts “She Persisted” and "The Hidden Meaning of Dreams." For these media efforts, Melissa was awarded the Atlanta Dream/SunTrust Inspiring Woman Award and has served on the What Women Want Networking Group Speaker’s Board.

Melissa was the first openly-gay full-time morning show personality in Atlanta, and one of the first in the country. She is a Featured Columnist for The GA Voice, and has written for Huffington Post and Curve Magazine about her experience as a lesbian. Melissa served on the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT Advisory Board and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s LGBT Advisory Board. For her efforts in sharing her life publicly and mentoring LGBT+ youth, Melissa received the HRC Community Leadership Award and the CHRIS Kids Kyle Anderson Service to Youth Award. She has also served as a featured speaker for the Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Securing her Life and Health insurance licenses, Melissa has served financial advisors across the country who aspire to be media personalities. Working with them one-on-one, she has hosted radio shows with dozens of advisors on stations across the nation. Melissa has also been an invited speaker to a workshop for female financial advisors, to discuss the benefits of using media as part of their business strategy.

Melissa was unexpectedly diagnosed with kidney disease at 27 and was on dialysis by 31, having no known family history of kidney disease. As a media personality she had the ability to share her experience with her audience, encouraging them to become organ donors in the process. Melissa has served on the boards of the Atlanta Kidney Fund and the Kidney Foundation of Georgia, and has worked on several events with the Georgia Transplant Foundation. Melissa established the Melissa Carter Transplant Fund at Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta and co-wrote and performed the song “Unplugged,” with proceeds benefiting the Fund. She was also part of the Rose Bowl Parade as a rider on the Donate Life Float.



Melissa is a proud alumnae of The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, establishing the Melissa Carter Leadership Scholarship there. She also attended graduate school at Georgia State University as part of the first Women’s Studies degree offered by the university.