Melissa Hook

Director of the Office of Victim's Services

Melissa Hook has devoted 16 years to the field of victim assistance in nonprofit administration and program development, public policy development, ethics, and collaborative initiatives that promote victims’ rights and services. She has been the Director of the DC Office of Victim Services since 2006 and was the former

Executive Director of the Victims’ Assistance Legal Organization (VALOR), a not-for-profit that advocates for the legal rights of crime victims. Hook has worked with the US Department of Justice and numerous national organizations as a writer, curriculum developer and editor on topics related to criminal and juvenile justice and offender reentry, crime victim assistance, organizational development and ethics.

Hook is author of Ethics in Victim Services (2005) published by Sidran Institute Press; coauthor of Spiritually Sensitive Caregiving: A Multi-Faith Handbook (2008) published by Compassion Books; and author of over 60 articles and texts on crime and victimization. She has been a consulting editor to the Crime Victims Report since 1999. From 2005-2007, Hook served on the National Advisory Committee to the US Attorney General for the Office on Violence Against Women and the US Attorney General’s Commission on Victims of Crime. In 2002, Hook launched the Filmmakers’ Forum for Sensitivity to Crime Victims with New York Women in Film and Television to address the insensitive treatment of crime victims in film, reality television and documentary film. Hook received a BA from Hampshire College with a major in urban planning.