Melissa Seixas ’92 will speak to the Class of 2025 at the 62nd Annual Eckerd College Commencement Ceremony.
When Melissa Seixas ’92 was choosing her major at Eckerd College, she thought her decision to study history was in conflict with her lifelong dream of becoming an engineer.
In the Eckerd classroom, she devoured stories about the Civil Rights Movement and World War II. In her extracurricular job at a local electric company, she worked part time in the drafting department, drawing poles and wires on the map of the power grid.
“I had what I thought were these two competing interests,” she says.
More than 30 years later, she credits those “competing” interests with her success in a high-profile job as the state president in Florida for Duke Energy, where she has spent her entire career after starting in the drafting department of what was then Florida Power. She was named state president in 2021. And on May 18, 2025, Melissa will be the speaker at Eckerd’s Commencement Ceremony on South Beach Field.
“Eckerd College is deeply proud of the personal and professional accomplishments of its alumna Melissa Seixas,” Eckerd President James J. Annarelli, Ph.D., says. “No one has been a more effective and articulate advocate for liberal arts education as a foundation for corporate leadership than Melissa, and we are excited that she will be addressing the members of the Class of 2025 during the College’s 62nd Annual Commencement.”
After her father—an Army colonel from whom she inherited her love of history—passed away when she was 13, Melissa needed to stay close to home for college to help her mother. This made Eckerd her top choice. After graduating with a B.A. in history and high honors, she earned a master’s degree in American history from the University of South Florida, where she now serves on its Board of Trustees.
From her time at Eckerd, she remembers professors who made it clear they cared about students, and she especially remembers her mentor, Professor of American Studies and History Carolyn Johnston, as a guiding light.
The alumna worked her way up from the drafting department of Florida Power to the state president for Florida at Duke Energy.
“I think because the professors were so approachable, at that fairly young age [for me], they really helped develop a level of confidence in me,” she says.
Throughout the years, an acquisition and a merger, she stayed at the same company—first Florida Power, then Progress Energy, and now Duke—and climbed the ladder through operations and public affairs instead of engineering, as she had once planned.
While Melissa says she never expected to serve as Duke Energy’s president, she takes tremendous pride in filling the role. She hopes Eckerd students can see her path and know that a place exists for them in the community after graduation as well.
“Eckerd College and its students have so much talent and value to bring to the St. Petersburg area,” she says. “Their experience on the educational front, combined with real-life experience, helps them connect with the community. What I really would like to see is for students to make St. Petersburg home.”
In addition to her degrees, Melissa has completed executive training—including a Corporate Social Responsibility certification from Johns Hopkins University, Yale University’s Global Executive Leadership Program, and programs with the Edison Electric Institute and Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
She currently serves on the boards of directors for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Electric Power Coordinating Group Inc., and the Tampa Bay Partnership Council of Governors. She also is a member of the Florida Council of 100. Melissa was named to Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Power 100 and was recognized as one of Florida Trend’s 500 Most Influential Leaders. She is a recipient of the 2022 Arts Advocate of the Year Award, presented by the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, and the 2021 Winnie Foster Lifetime Achievement Award.
Melissa and her husband, Greg, live in Seminole and have four children and five grandchildren.
