#Changemakers: Meet Melissa Parnagian ’17 Q. What’s your current position? As manager of growth strategies for social impact and legislative affairs, my job at the NHL involves launching and amplifying projects that make the league, its players, and its fans more connected to social issues on and off the ice. Hockey may not be a sport that has historically been known for social advocacy, but so many NHL players want to advocate for causes like racial justice, gender equality, voting rights, and environmentalism. They’re simply looking for an authentic pathway to get involved. Q. How did your time at SPIA prepare you for your current work? When I tell people I work for the NHL, they often ask why I left the policy world for sports. But the platform of professional sports — the people it can reach, the messages it can send — has incredible potential to accelerate the positive changes policymakers want to see. SPIA gave me the strategic foundation to understand how to build and implem...