Melissa Sortman is an assistant provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs.  She provides leadership and support for the university on all aspects of academic employment, including human resources, negotiations, policies, and procedures. She has been at MSU since May 2019.

Prior to coming to MSU, she worked at the University of Michigan as the Associate Director of Academic Human Resources and served as chief negotiator in the bargaining with the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO). She previously worked at the Michigan Education Association (MEA) serving in a variety of positions including chief negotiator for the largest MEA local (MSU-APA) and bargained the Coalition of Labor Wage and Health Care Agreement. She has negotiated many contracts representing public school employees for over 16 years with MEA. She started her career as a congressional staff person before running political campaigns for the Michigan Legislature and Michigan Supreme Court.