Melissa Fortunato, Ret. Special Agent
Currently living in Cleveland, Ohio with my husband, Jeff, two daughters, Sophia (14) and Layla (12), and two rescue dogs. Living in a house with tween/teen daughters has me practicing my negotiation skills daily (sometimes hourly)
I recently retired from the FBI after working 23 years as an FBI Special Agent/Crisis Negotiator/Undercover Agent.
Just started my own negotiation and conflict resolution training and consulting company, Alchemy Team (www.alchemy-team.com). Lots to learn in this area so would love to hear how others are doing it.
Partnering with some other negotiation training companies as a trainer.
We just bought a 150 year old house that is a fixer upper. I think I watched one too many HGTV shows to think we could take this on.
I am fascinated by humans and how they interact. I love real conversations about purpose and life journeys. I’m at the life stage now where my happy place is sitting on my back porch with wine/cocktail watching my dogs run free.
Melissa is a retired FBI Special Agent with over 23 years as a federal law enforcement officer, assigned to New York City and Cleveland field offices.
Melissa was a certified FBI crisis Negotiator and Undercover Agent. She spent her last 15 years as an FBI crisis Negotiator; leading FBI Cleveland’s Crisis Negotiation Team for 10 of those years. In this capacity, she successfully resolved domestic and international kidnappings, barricaded subjects, and other crisis events. Melissa planned and executed formal crisis negotiation training for hundreds of law enforcement officers. Moreover, she worked as an assessor and coach for the FBI’s National Crisis Negotiation Course. In 2020, Melissa was selected by the FBI to instruct at the International law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Budapest, Hungary, where she taught crisis negotiation strategies to international law enforcement officers. In addition to her FBI training, Melissa represented the FBI in 2019 as a student at the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) Hostage Negotiation Course in London, England.
As an FBI undercover agent, Melissa operated domestically and internationally. Her undercover portfolio included transnational organized crime, public corruption, drug trafficking, and counterintelligence matters. One of the cases in which she was directly involved as an undercover agent was briefed to the President of the United States and was recognized with the FBI Director’s Award.
Melissa is Founder and Chief Negotiation Officer for the Alchemy Team. She is married with two daughters. Her husband is an Assistant Special Agent in Charge of FBI Cleveland, where he leads its National Security branch.