Melissa Hoover is the Executive Director of the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC), the national membership organization for worker cooperatives, founded in 2004. She is also a founding director of the nonprofit Democracy at Work Institute, which provides technical assistance resources to worker cooperatives. For five years she also worked as a cooperative developer with the Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives, where she assisted in the development of new Arizmendi cooperatives and provided ongoing support to existing cooperatives. Melissa started in worker cooperatives as a member at Inkworks Press in Berkeley, California, as a bookkeeper and then member of the management group. She has also worked as an independent consultant helping co-ops and small businesses strengthen all aspects of financial management. Melissa graduated from Stanford University with a BA in History and a research focus on the role of immigrant women in building a cooperative movement in the early 20th century.