Background
Dr. Melissa Chester (fondly known as Doc) is a former college professor that taught on the collegiate level for over fifteen years before entering the field of real estate. Since entering the real estate field in March of 2016, she has become a Florida licensed instructor (April 2017) and lead instructor for Premier Coast Real Estate School, as well as the Director of Education & Training for the brokerage. She teaches the sales associate & broker pre-license, post-license, and continuing education courses. Dr. Chester became a broker in October of 2018 and was the Managing Broker with Premier Coast Realty, LLC (Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Tampa, & South Florida) from 2020 -2022. Dr. Chester opened her own brokerage, Red Phoenix Realty, LLC in May 2022. She also has her Georgia broker’s license. Dr. Chester is the local board President of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) for Jacksonville, Florida (First Coast Association of Realtist) for 2020 – Present; President of the Women’s Council of the First Coast; (2021- Present); 1st Vice President of the Florida State Association of Realtist; Chair of the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion committee, member of the Faith Based & Community Outreach committee, and a member of the nominating committee for NAREB. Along with being active in her profession, Dr. Chester is also actively involved with many nonprofit organizations whose mission supports education and youth. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of Black Educators Rock, Inc., a national nonprofit which boasts over 150,000 Black educators in its Facebook group. BER, Inc.’s goal is to further the academic success of our nation’s minority students by closing the “attitude gap” that exists among educators and students. She is on the executive board of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) Jacksonville Leadership Council, board member of The Center One Foundation, board member of Georgia Association of Alternative Education (GAAE), board member of the Florida Recovery School of Jacksonville, member of the Urban Education Symposium (UES) steering committee, and is a certified instructor for the national initiative known as Adult Mental Health First Aid (AMHFA). She is also an active member of the Jacksonville Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.