Melissa Herrmann, Founder of Emerge Counseling and Consulting has spent over 20 years focused on working directly with children‑at‑risk and vulnerable women across the globe. Her efforts have entailed establishing and directing numerous children’s homes and residential facilities, developing community‑based programs, training thousands of professionals and organizations around the world, and providing lay pastoral counseling and psycho‑education. Her program models have been recognized by multiple governments, which led her to assist the government of Rwanda in nationalized orphan‑care policy reform. Her work was in collaboration with organizations such as UN, USAID, and World Vision.