About Melissa Christie

My love for service started in childhood. I was born into a country surrounded by poverty. Though I was fortunate, I watched many of my friends struggle to access the opportunities I had. I grew up watching both of my parents serve in government roles, using their positions to lift up families in deep need.

My favorite thing about my mother was that she would cook meals not just for us, but for our entire neighborhood, often knowing that for many, it would be the only meal they’d eat that day. I was raised to give away my old clothes, toys, and school lunches without hesitation. My father, a businessman and civil servant, taught me what it meant to work hard while serving others. My parents were my first example of leadership, sacrifice, and compassion, and that shaped everything that’s followed in my life.

Since then, I’ve built my life around creating impact.

I’ve served an LDS mission in Hawaii, worked as a student midwife in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, helping women in extreme poverty deliver healthy babies and avoid unnecessary cesareans. I served as Miss Haiti International, delivering shoes and clothing to orphanages across Haiti. I speak English, French, and Haitian Creole, and I’m currently learning Spanish to better serve the diverse families I work with.

As a serial entrepreneur, I’ve launched several successful businesses, including a solar company in California. But after seeing the greed in that industry, and later witnessing the same thing in childcare, I knew it was time for something different. I’m a single mom. I know what it feels like to have to leave your child to go provide and then come home with barely enough left after paying for care.

That’s why I started Greenhouse Affordable Childcare. If parents have to be away from their kids, it should make sense. It should work for their families, not against them. I built this center with one mindset: it has to be a win for families before it’s a win for me. And with that belief, I’ve been able to create something that’s not just successful, but deeply meaningful. I am So proud of this little daycare and the many families I get to serve.

“A childcare center should work for the parent, the child, and the community, anything less isn’t success.”