Co-President - Shirley Melis, Santa Fe NM

​Shirley Melis is a longtime business writer, travel writer, and newspaper columnist who
traveled the world interviewing everyone from busboys to heads of international organizations
before launching a career in public relations in Washington, D.C.

With an award-winning memoir, Banged-Up Heart, Shirley took her writing in a new
direction, delving deeply into her own personal story of finding love late, losing it early, and
discovering the strength to choose to love again.
​
A graduate of Vassar, Shirley moved from Northern Virginia to Santa Fe full-time in
2011 to marry Frank Hirsch. Now retired, she is a full-time writer and pre-Covid, traveled
extensively. She is on the Steering Committee for the Northern Chapter of New Mexico Press
Women and has given workshops on memoir writing sponsored by Southwest Writers and the
New Mexico Book Association.