Melissa Figueroa joined the Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer & Lange team in 2024 as the Director of Public Affairs and Communications. Melissa brings more than two decades of public affairs, crisis communications, media relations and press experience to the role.

Prior to joining SYASL, Melissa served as a communications appointee for two consecutive governors working on some of the most complex and controversial projects and issues in state government. Most recently as an appointee in the Newsom Administration, Melissa served as the Chief of Strategic Communications for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the largest infrastructure project in the country. As the primary advisor on communications and government affairs issues to the CEO, she was essential in stakeholder and media support that led to the successful award of $3.1 billion dollars in federal grant funding for the California high-speed rail project, the largest grant award in the project’s history as well as a shift in positive public perception on the project nationally.

During the Brown Administration, Melissa served as an appointee at the California State Transportation Agency, leading communications, and stakeholder strategy for the successful passage of Senate Bill 1 in 2017, the work surrounding the opening of the new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and subsequent demolition of the old span, and she helped coordinate interagency emergency response to numerous natural disasters.

Melissa spent several years working in the California legislature as a press secretary following her time as a television news producer in newsrooms in San Luis Obispo and Sacramento.

Melissa received her Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.