Meet Melissa Garrett

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melissa Garrett. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melissa below.

Melissa, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes first from my Native American family. My Grandpa Conner, born in 1900, survived the Carlisle boarding school, fought in both World Wars, lived through the Great Depression, and raised a first family before marrying my grandmother, a full-blood Cherokee woman born in 1932 who spoke broken English. Together they carried our culture, language, and traditions through times when the world tried to erase them.

On my mother’s side, my Grandpa Griffin, born in 1924, came from farmers and went into World War II the day after D-Day as a driver, rushing medics and the wounded to safety under fire — even taking a bullet himself — before serving again in Korea and earning four Bronze Stars.

Growing up between these two legacies taught me resilience is more than survival. It’s standing firm like my Native ancestors while planting new seeds like the farmers before me — pushing through storms, carrying both worlds forward with persistence and faith.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m the owner of Wadulisi’s, a contemporary Indigenous food business, and founder of The Hive: The Indigenous Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Indigenous culture through food sovereignty, education, and the arts. We bring traditional foods and cultural teachings to modern audiences while creating spaces for Indigenous voices, artists, and educators to thrive.

This fall, we have some exciting things ahead, including the launch of our new website in October and our Culture Night at Green Hills Mid-Continent Public Library on October 1st. Our work continues to grow with classes, storytelling events, and food sovereignty initiatives — all rooted in the mission to preserve culture one plate, one story, and one seed at a time.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

For me, the three most important qualities have been resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to keep learning.

Resilience came from my family’s legacy — their ability to push through wars, poverty, and change taught me to keep going when life gets hard. Adaptability has been key because no two opportunities look the same, and being open to new ways of doing things keeps you moving forward. And learning — both formal education and life lessons — keeps me growing and ready for whatever comes next.

For anyone starting out, I’d say: listen to your elders and mentors, don’t be afraid to try and fail, and keep adding tools to your toolkit. Those three things will carry you through anything.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

My story has always been shaped by learning, service, and persistence. My dad used to say people misunderstood the phrase ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ because the full version is ‘but oftentimes better than master of one.’ He lived that — self-educated, teaching us Indigenous history and culture, while my mom, a full-time teacher, gave us structure and classrooms where I learned education from the inside out. My grandparents gave me roots: on my Native side, the language, the foodways, the stories; on my pioneer side, canning, orchards, and surviving the Depression.

I earned my CNA license, attempted EMT training before my parents’ cancer diagnoses pulled me home, completed over 56 college credits toward education, worked as a daycare director and lead teacher, and spent a lifetime volunteering — from the Heart of America Indian Center at 14 to classrooms, libraries, and community events wherever I was needed.

Through all the setbacks — spine surgery, financial barriers, family illness — I finally realized my dream by earning my Culinary Arts & Operations degree at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in 2025. Now I’m pursuing my next degree in entrepreneurship, carrying forward what my family taught me: keep learning, stay rooted, and give back to the community every step of the way.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Melissa Garrett
And Washburn University

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