Melanie Grossman

Melanie Durand Grossman (she/her) was born in St. Martinville, LA, a small southern town in the heart of Cajun country. When she was 17, she met a Jewish boy who was passing through her hometown. She went on to elope with him when she finished college and moved to New Haven where her new husband was finishing medical school. She received her master’s degree at Simmons School of Social Work and her PhD from Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and Social Research.

Melanie and her husband have 3 children and 4 grandsons, all Bar Mitzvah boys. She now lives in San Francisco. She is President of the Older Women’s League, SF, and advocates for women’s causes. She has written a memoir, Crossing Bayou Teche, which tells her story of growing up in the Deep South and finding her way in a new world, weaving the different parts of her life together as she navigated her interfaith marriage of 57 years.