Dr. Melanie Lashlee Adams

Melanie is the Executive Director for the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University. In this role, she leads CEE’s team of facilitators, curriculum designers, and program staff in developing programs and instructing leaders within the center’s programs. She has experience in developing and teaching fully customized leadership development programs for Fortune 100 and 500 organizations and specializes in cultivating a connection between the topics she teaches and the strategic focus of those organizations. One of the main goals Melanie has for the participants of CEE’s sessions is that they are able to readily understand and apply new concepts, fully embracing the center’s motto of “learn it today, apply it tomorrow.”

Melanie also serves as CEE’s principal consultant, working directly with clients to design customized leadership development programs for local and national organizations. Her focus is assessing and understanding the needs of both the business and the leaders in those organizations, and then working to design programs that align to both the strategic and human sides of those organizations. In her work for CEE over the last several years, Melanie has also maintained an active teaching role in programs, delivering courses such as Leading Organizational Change, Personal and Organizational Communication, Conflict Management and Difficult Conversations, Coaching and Development for Optimal Performance, Building a Winning Team, Strategic Thinking, The Generations at Work, Emotional Intelligence, StrengthsBased Leadership, Critical Thinking and Decision Making, as well as many others.

Melanie holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree in organizational communication from Murray State University, and a bachelor’s degree in organizational management from Tusculum University, and numerous professional certifications in the subject matter areas that she teaches. Away from work, Melanie has served on the Board of Directors at the Linden Waldorf School. She also loves to read and cook and looks forward to her family’s yearly vacation in Maine, where she spent her summers as a child. Melanie resides in West Nashville with her husband and their daughter, and their beloved Labrador retriever, Posey.