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Melissa Jekel

Michigan cannabis compliance consultant and founder of Social Equity Solutions

Phone:

(989) 992-5332

Address:

Grand Rapids, MI 49504

A Bit About Melissa

Melissa Jekel is the Founder and CEO of Social Equity Solutions and the Director of Data and Research for the Great Lakes Expungement Network. She is a recognized grantee of the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency's Social Equity Grant Program, Gold-level certified in the CRA Social Equity All-Star Program, and a former member of the CRA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Workgroup. She built a consulting firm that does what most people in this space only describe.

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Credentials and recognition

  • CRA Social Equity Grant Program: Recognized grantee, FY 2024 and FY 2025

  • Gold-level All-Star Certified: Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency

  • CRA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Workgroup: Social Equity Program Effectiveness Subcommittee

  • 7 Leaf Award: Community Impact Award winner; Customer Relations finalist (2025)

  • Influential Women 2026: Featured honoree

  • Great Lakes Expungement Network: Director of Data and Research

  • Sons and Daughters United: Active affiliate

  • All Rise: Member

  • BS, Northwood University

  • AA, Delta College

  • Cannabis Compliance and Risk Management: Northern Michigan University

  • Licensed Marihuana Event Organizer: State of Michigan

  • Michigan Notary Public

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Why Social Equity Solutions exists

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Melissa entered the cannabis industry in 2019 during Michigan's transition into the regulated adult-use market. She started on the front lines of medical marijuana certifications and retail operations and grew into compliance and social equity leadership inside a vertically integrated cannabis company, where she managed over 150 client accounts and contributed to more than $1 million in tracked sales.

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What she observed from inside that work was a consistent pattern: businesses that wanted to do things right were struggling not because they lacked the intent, but because the systems for translating regulations into operations simply did not exist. Social equity requirements were unclear. Funding opportunities were fragmented. The people most impacted by past enforcement policies were still facing the steepest barriers to entering the legal market.

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Social Equity Solutions was built to close that gap. Not to consult on equity from a distance, but to build the systems that make it operational, trackable, and real inside actual businesses and organizations.

Cannabis regulatory work and CRA engagement

Through Social Equity Solutions, Melissa has worked directly with the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency ecosystem at every level: as a licensee, a grantee, a certified All-Star participant, and as a policy contributor.

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In June 2024, the CRA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Workgroup created the Social Equity Program Effectiveness Subcommittee. Melissa served on it. That work produced an evaluation and set of recommendations for the CRA's Social Equity Program, informed by her direct experience building programs that had to meet those same standards. She understands the benchmarks because she helped define them, and then went back to helping clients meet them.

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SES holds Gold-level certification in the CRA Social Equity All-Star Program, the highest tier available. Gold certification requires a published and implemented social equity plan, a corporate spend plan with verified diverse suppliers, and an active community reinvestment plan with documented outcomes. It is not a badge that comes from filing a form. It reflects a sustained commitment to equity benchmarks that the state of Michigan has set and publicly verifies.

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SES is also a recognized recipient of the CRA Social Equity Grant Program in both FY 2024 and FY 2025. Grant eligibility requires All-Star certification and active participation in a social equity program. Receipt of these funds confirms SES's status as a vetted social equity licensee, not just an advisor to them.

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Task Force 1620 and veteran access

Melissa has been actively involved in expanding the CRA's Task Force 1620 program, which connects licensed Michigan cannabis retailers with eligible veterans through structured discount and donation programs. She has worked to create compliant implementation frameworks for licensees participating in TF1620, helping retailers design programs that are sustainable, trackable, and fully aligned with CRA guidance.

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This work connects directly to her broader medical cannabis advocacy. As a caregiver and advocate in the ALS community, Melissa has been a voice for patient access at the federal level, contributing to policy work around the Steve Gleason Enduring Voices Act and the Right to Try Act. The operational and the personal are not separate for her; they inform the same work.

Expungement, reentry

and the Great Lakes Expungement Network

Alongside her cannabis industry work, Melissa serves as Director of Data and Research for the Great Lakes Expungement Network (GLEN), a statewide initiative that has helped thousands of Michigan residents navigate the expungement process and access free legal services. GLEN operates across all 83 Michigan counties and has contributed millions of dollars in free legal assistance for people clearing their records.

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Melissa's role at GLEN is not a side project. It is the other half of the same work. The connection between cannabis policy reform and expungement is not rhetorical: the same communities that were most targeted during prohibition are the ones the CRA Social Equity Program is designed to support. Understanding both sides of that history is what makes SES's approach to social equity program design different from a compliance checklist.

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Her systems design work at GLEN (building outreach pipelines, application tracking infrastructure, legal partner coordination, and county-level outcome reporting) is directly reflected in how SES structures community reinvestment programs, All-Star documentation systems, and social equity reporting for cannabis licensees.

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What makes a Michigan cannabis compliance consultant worth hiring

There are people in this space who focus on advocacy. There are people who focus on policy. There are attorneys who handle licensing. There are large firms that produce reports. What is less common is someone who operates across all of those areas and has the documented outcomes to show for it.

Melissa brings a specific combination that shapes every SES engagement:

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  • Hands-on cannabis operations experience from the front lines through leadership roles in a vertically integrated company

  • Direct policy engagement with the CRA, including program evaluation work that produced published recommendations

  • Community infrastructure work through GLEN, with verifiable statewide outcomes across expungement and reentry

  • Implementation-first discipline: every engagement produces systems that run, track, and report, not documents that sit​

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The result is a consultant who understands what the regulations require, what operators actually deal with in practice, and what community impact looks like when it is built into a business's structure rather than added as a footnote.

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"Equity should not be theoretical. It should be operational, measurable, and built into the structure of every program and business we create."

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Melissa Jekel, Founder and CEO, Social Equity Solutions

Education and professional credentials

Academic background

  • Bachelor of Science, Northwood University

  • Associate in Arts, Delta College

  • Cannabis Compliance and Risk Management (badge), Northern Michigan University

Industry licenses and certifications

  • Licensed Marihuana Event Organizer, State of Michigan

  • Michigan Notary Public

  • CRA Social Equity All-Star Program, Gold level

  • CRA Social Equity Grant Program grantee, FY 2024 and FY 2025

Advisory and committee roles

  • CRA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Workgroup: Social Equity Program Effectiveness Subcommittee (2024)

  • Co-host, 2025 Drug Policy Reform Conference, Detroit

Affiliations

  • Great Lakes Expungement Network: Director of Data and Research

  • All Rise: Member

  • Sons and Daughters United: Active affiliate

  • ALS Association: Patient advocate

Recognition

  • Influential Women 2026: Featured honoree for cross-sector leadership in cannabis compliance, social equity evaluation, and statewide program development

  • 7 Leaf Award: Community Impact Award (2025): Industry recognition for community-centered cannabis work in Michigan

  • 7 Leaf Award: Customer Relations finalist (2025): Recognized for client-facing excellence across SES engagements

Work with Melissa and Social Equity Solutions

Social Equity Solutions works with Michigan cannabis operators navigating CRA compliance, social equity applicants building their programs, nonprofits designing community reinvestment initiatives, and businesses pursuing All-Star certification or grant funding. If the work you are doing sits at the intersection of compliance, equity, and community impact, this is the right conversation to have.

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