About Melissa
Melissa Unemori Hampe
Partner
After leaving Congressional service, Melissa directed government relations for the national nonprofit MENTOR: National Mentoring Partnership, advocating for 4,000 youth mentoring programs across the country. She then joined Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm McAllister & Quinn in 2008, with MENTOR as her first client. In addition to providing strategic funding and government affairs expertise to a range of clients, Melissa launched the firm’s comprehensive suite of federal and foundation grant services. In 2016, she moved back to Maui with her family, continuing to serve McAllister & Quinn clients across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Melissa joined SR Partners in 2019. She manages statewide and national grant assistance initiatives, including for the Hawaii Alliance for Nonprofit Organizations, Urban Sustainability Directors Network, State Funding Readiness Project, and Hawaiian Islands Environmental Finance Center. The billions of dollars secured by those programs so far has supported a wide range of entities, from a nearly $400 million pollution reduction award for a mid-Atlantic state agency, to a $62.4 million grant for Hawaii’s Solar for All program, to a $400,000 grant to fund a watershed partnership on the Big Island.
Outside of her work, Melissa is deeply involved with sharing expertise with educational institutions and community organizations. From 2021 to 2024, she served on the Board of Advisors for Nakupuna Companies and Nakupuna Foundation. Melissa is also a member of the parents’ board at Seabury Hall and board at Carden Academy of Maui, as well as a board member of Ohana100: The Daniel Kahikina Akaka Family Foundation. In her free time, Melissa and her husband are proud performing arts parents; each of their four daughters is active in musical theater, drama, dance, chorus, or ballet.
Melissa Unemori Hampe oversees government relations and grants services, where her efforts have secured more than $2 billion for statewide and national clients.
Born and raised on Maui, Melissa studied at Cornell University and then earned a Master of Business Administration from the Yale School of Management. She began her legislative career on Capitol Hill in the late Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink’s office, where she served as Legislative Assistant and Press Secretary. She then served as the Domestic Policy Advisor for the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. After missing day-to-day connections with Hawaii constituents, Melissa joined the staff of late Sen. Daniel Akaka, leading a collaborative team to champion policy priorities.
