Staff

Melissa Gravius - Executive Director

Melissa Gravius was born and raised in Auburn. She lives in nearby Skaneateles with her husband, Brandon, the controller at a local company, son, Alex, and two daughters, Serenity and Adora.

Prior to coming to CFL, Melissa was a mental health professional working with dual-diagnosed adults, and an attorney specializing in family and matrimonial law. Additionally, Melissa worked at Catholic Charities in Syracuse for five years, where she ran Homeless and Housing Vulnerable Relocation programs, the focus of which were to assist homeless and housing vulnerable men, women, and families with their basic needs, including shelter, food, clothing, and income. Over the course of her five years there, well over two thousand households moved out of, or were prevented from becoming homeless, including several hundred Veteran headed households.   

Melissa loves working at CFL, developing programming with her staff, and serving the CNY community.

John Alberici – Director of Development and Everest Park

John Alberici is the Director of Development at Champions for Life, joining the team in 2011 after more than 21 years in media sales. In his role at Everest Park, John spearheaded the campaign to build five full size athletics fields there, where he is the tournament director for the Finger Lakes Lacrosse Tournaments and co-Director of the Finger Lakes Mud Run. 

A lifelong resident of the area, John and his wife Wendy reside in Auburn, empty nesters now that their three daughters, Jessie, Jenna, and Jillian, have grown up. John continues to coach the AHS Wrestling Team and the AHS Girls Varsity Lacrosse program, and can't go anywhere without a former wrestler, football player, lacrosse player or parent calling out "Hey Coach!".