Melody has a two-fold educational background in Management of public affairs and Sociology (Ph-D on the government of major cities in France). Melody worked for URBACT for 11 years. She was called in to support the first generation of the programme at a time when URBACT I was pioneering capitalisation of knowledge on urban policies among European cities. She actively developed new networking activities aiming to provide answers to the needs and demands of urban practitioners and policy-makers (at local, national and EU levels). Convinced that improving lives in our cities depends on the people involved in designing and delivering policies, she worked to boost participatory approaches and related capacities at local level. More especially she initiated the URBACT Summer Universities, National Training Seminars across Europe and piloted a training scheme for local elected representatives.