Long-time jewelry industry member Melissa Quick is to join the board of directors of Gem Legacy which works to expand beneficiation in colored gemstone mining areas and communities via children, education, and entrepreneurship.
Quick has been a retail store owner for more than 25 years together with her husband and business partner Steve.
She first visited East Africa, where many of the jewelry industry's colored gems originate, in 1998 on a visit to the plains of the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, Gem Legacy said.
In 2018 she returned, traveling with the founders of Gem Legacy to visit gem mines and meet the miners. This offered Melissa a fresh and holistic perspective on the gems often used in the designs she sold.
(Image: Gem Legacy)
The organization said that it was during that trip that she saw the positive impact the industry could have in these communities, and she felt compelled to join the effort to make gem supply chains safer, healthier, and more equitable.