Melissa Karam Panchley graduated from BMC Durfee High School in 1991 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Human Development from Boston College in 1995.
After graduating from college, Melissa went to work at the Fall River Housing Authority for six years where she was a Youth Outreach Worker, and then the Elderly Services Coordinator. When she decided to start a family, she went to work for the family business at Karam Financial Group, where she could do bookkeeping work from home while she raised her children.
In 2009, Melissa received a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
In 2011, Melissa transitioned into the role of Senior Property Manager for the adult communities managed by Karam Financial Group. In this role she is responsible for overseeing the management and physical plant of 304 apartment units on the Southcoast and Cape Cod, as well as 44 condominium units.
Melissa served on the Fall River School Committee from 2014-2017. During that time, she chaired the Finance Sub-Committee, as well as the Instructional Sub-Committee. She also served on the Superintendent search committee in 2016. After serving on the Fall River School Committee, she was the Treasurer for the New Durfee Ballot Action Committee, a ballot question committee in support of funding for a new Durfee High School.
Melissa has been involved in numerous organizations as a volunteer, such as the President of the Board of the Ninth Street Day Nursery and Vice President and Treasurer for the Friends of Saint Anne’s Hospital. She currently serves on the Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce’s Sub-Committee on Education, the Board of the Greater Fall River United Way, and Treasurer of the Durfee Hilltopper Athletic Foundation.
Melissa was born and raised in Fall River and currently resides in the city with her husband, Josh and two sons, Thomas and Christopher.
- PH.D in Interdisciplinary from Memorial University, Canada
- Master of Science in Maritime Economics from Erasmus University, Netherlands
- Capt. Ashok Pandey is a former shipmaster with a sea-career spanning more than two decades most of which was spent on ice. An avid researcher, his current areas of research interest include shipping route modelling in the Arctic using GIS and the e-navigation platform. He has spent the last ten years in academia and has lectured on various subjects including International Maritime Business, Supply Chain Management and Ship Chartering and Port Economics. He has commanded Cape size bulk carriers (ice-class) for almost a decade and specializes in high latitude navigation.
