Owner's representation, capital planning, and leadership development for California's public agencies, healthcare institutions, and higher-education clients.
Lighthouse CMC pairs three decades of construction leadership with a boutique model. Clients work directly with the principal on the work that determines whether a project actually delivers.
The practice is purpose-built for mission-driven institutions: California public agencies, special districts, higher-education campuses, and healthcare systems navigating complex, long-horizon capital work where consistency, candor, and judgment matter more than headcount.
Each engagement is structured around a clear mandate, scoped to fit the institution's existing team, and led directly by the principal from start to closeout.
Day-to-day stewardship of capital projects on behalf of owners — keeping budget, schedule, scope, and risk in alignment from feasibility through closeout. Embedded in your team, accountable to your interests, and fluent in the realities of public-sector and institutional delivery.
Long-range capital strategy, program structuring, and prioritization for institutions managing complex portfolios. Translates organizational need into deliverable scope, sequenced funding, and clear go-forward decisions that survive contact with reality.
Leadership development for project delivery teams, built on the Lighthouse framework. Direct coaching and structured engagements that help managers lead complex work without micromanaging — with measurable improvements in trust, accountability, and team effectiveness.
Three proprietary frameworks that shape how Lighthouse engagements are structured, taught, and evaluated.
A leadership model for technical project work, organized around three pillars that reinforce one another.
A four-stage cycle for project leadership built on the conviction that movement reveals the right path. Good enough gets you sailing — better keeps you stuck in port.
A delivery model built on three project phases and three delivery roles, weighted equally. Counters the bias toward construction-phase attention by giving planning, execution, and closeout — and the people who lead each — the same standing.
Melissa founded Lighthouse CMC after thirty years inside California's construction industry — most recently as Assistant Director of Project Delivery at UCSF, where she led a team of fourteen across capital improvement projects on an active academic medical campus.
Earlier in her career, she ran the Technology Division of one of California's largest electrical contractors, with full P&L responsibility. Across both worlds — owner-side and contractor-side — her work has centered on the leadership and structure that determine whether projects actually deliver, beyond the schedules and budgets that document them.
She founded Lighthouse to bring that focus directly to mission-driven institutions, without the overhead of a large firm.
Engagements are scoped individually and accepted on a selective basis. Reach out with a brief description of your project, institution, and timeline — Melissa will respond personally.
