Calyssa Zellars delivering the 2019 commencement address for the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her alma mater.

About Calyssa

Education

I graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I earned a B.A. in Public Policy Analysis with minors in Spanish for the Professions and Journalism. I later earned my J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. In 2019, I returned to UNC-Chapel Hill as the commencement speaker for the Department of Public Policy.

Career

My career has spanned law, politics, advocacy, sports marketing, public relations and crisis communications. I began my legal career in mergers and acquisitions at Honigman LLP, advising private equity funds. I later served as Chief Counsel for Impact Litigation at the Decarceration Collective, where I helped secure freedom for two men serving life sentences under outdated federal drug laws.

At Color of Change, I worked in political strategy and led winning campaigns in Chicago and Flint. Earlier in my career, I worked in marketing and corporate communications for the Detroit Lions, including the inaugural Quick Lane Bowl, and participated in Challenge Detroit, an urban revitalization fellowship focused on civic impact. I later advised municipalities, law firms, advocacy organizations and cultural institutions on complex reputational matters at BerlinRosen. I also co-founded Saint Park LLP, where I led the firm’s crisis management practice.

Current Work

Today, I discreetly counsel cultural institutions, brands, public figures and legacy-driven leaders navigating legal complexity, public visibility and long-term positioning. I also curate Louis Hilton Stories, a platform for storytelling, cultural memory and legacy rooted in the lineages of East Saint Louis and Hilton Head Island.

If your work touches law, legacy or culture and requires strategic, discreet and high-impact counsel, I welcome opportunities to collaborate.

I am a writer, lawyer, and researcher of culture, history, legacy, and storytelling. I publish a Sunday Substack, Coffee with Louis Hilton Stories, where I share my weekly notes and reflections on those very things. As the daughter of parents from East Saint Louis, Illinois, and the Gullah Geechee community of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, I founded Louis Hilton Stories to bring together my love of history, cultural memory and the written word with a commitment to protecting the stories, identities and legacies that matter.

Calyssa Zellars wearing her Juris Doctor regalia on the day she graduated from the University of Michigan Law School.
Calyssa Zellars seated beside Kathleen Cleaver and two other panelists during a Race, Law, and Citizenship seminar at the University of Michigan Law School.
A young Calyssa Zellars standing in front of the Eiffel Tower during a family trip to Paris in the early 2000s.
Calyssa Zellars on the field at Ford Field before the Quick Lane Bowl between UNC Chapel Hill and Rutgers, while she worked for the Detroit Lions and Ford Field.