Melissa Olson

Biography

Melissa Olson is a freelance journalist and producer of independent public media. In spring of 2022, Melissa reported several stories for MPR’s North Star Journey Project. She is the former co-managing editor of KFAI Radio’s MinneCulture audio storytelling program where she edited short-form and long-form audio stories. She is co-writer and co-producer of Stolen Childhoods, a long-form audio documentary produced in collaboration with KFAI Radio. Her work on Stolen Childhoods was honored with a Page One Award for Special Projects in Radio from the Minnesota chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists. 

Melissa is a contributor to We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, an anthology of essays published by the University of Minnesota Press. She is a board member of More Than a Single Story, a non-profit literary arts organization dedicated to supporting BIPOC writers in Minnesota. Melissa is a tribal citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. She is a graduate student in Arts &Public Policy at the Tisch School for the Arts at NYU, and she lives in Brooklyn, New York.