MELISSA BAFFA

She/Her

Executive Director
melissa@venturalandtrust.org 

Melissa joined Ventura Land Trust in 2021. She served on VLT’s Advisory Council and Development and Marketing Committee since 2019. Previous to joining VLT, she was the Development Officer in charge of Foundation and Corporate Relations at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and an instructor with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at California State University, Channel Islands. Her nonprofit management experience prior to that gave her insight into operations at several different Ventura County nonprofit organizations, from top to bottom. Baffa also taught middle school science in Simi Valley and marine biology in the Upward Bound program at California Lutheran University, and worked as a research associate at Amgen.

In 2015, Melissa was selected as a Science Communication Fellow with the Ocean Exploration Trust, exploring the deep sea as part of Dr. Robert Ballard’s Corps of Exploration in 2015, 2016, and 2018. She is also active in her community, serving on the board of Leap Lab Ventura and as an advisor to KidSTREAM Children’s Museum. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors of the Ventura County Leadership Academy, the Ventura County Women’s Economic Roundtable, the Ventura County Women’s Political Council, the California League of Park Associations, and Oxnard Downtown Management District. Melissa graduated from California Lutheran University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and lives in Ventura, walking distance from Ventura Land Trust's Big Rock Preserve.

When she is not working or volunteering, you are likely to find her outdoors, either in her garden or exploring the rich natural world that surrounds us, with camera in hand.