Meet Our Team

MEET OUR TEAM

Staff e-mail addresses are available by clicking on individual staff photos. In cases where only a username
is listed, please add @mt-schools.org - we made this change in an effort to discourage spam bots.

Melissa Tovaas

Executive Director

MORE ABOUT Melissa

Melissa Tovaas is the Executive Director of School Services of Montana (SSoM), and she also serves on the Montana ASCD Board of Directors. Melissa began her 20+ years in education as an elementary teacher with a background in elementary education, special education, and human development. To expand her expertise and impact education at a broader level, she worked nationally as an education consultant and in non-profit leadership roles supporting K-12 educators with best practices in teaching and learning. Melissa has enjoyed her focused support of Montana schools over the past seven years, and she is grateful for the people she gets to interact with along the way. As the former SSoM Director of Education Services, Melissa served schools with customized professional learning opportunities and led the SSoM curriculum consortium (MECC). She is passionate about supporting schools with best practices in proficiency-based education, literacy / MTSS, social emotional learning (SEL) / whole child skill development, STEM, and curriculum alignment / design. As Executive Director, Melissa leads the highly skilled School Services of Montana team in strategic planning aligned with SSoM's Vision and Mission. A priority area for her is expanding SSoM’s capacity to work alongside school personnel as partners, empowering Montana schools to meet the diverse needs of their students and schoolwide communities.

Melissa lives in Bozeman, MT with her blended family, their two cats, and hundreds of fish!