Melissa has over 30 years of experience developing, managing, and implementing disability policy and programmatic solutions within the Public Rehabilitation Program at the State and Federal level, and currently as a senior technical assistance and research analyst at the George Washington (GW) University. Her prior work with the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, Rehabilitative Services Administration for the State Monitoring Program Improvement Division offered invaluable experience and knowledge that now benefit several grant projects including the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: The Collaborative (NTACT:C), and the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center for Quality Management (VRTAC:QM), and GW’s Center for Innovative Training.

Melissa also led the pre-employment transition services technical assistance team under the Workforce Innovation Technical Assistance Center (WINTAC,) funded by the US Department of Education to assist states in implementing the provisions under WIOA. Melissa provides consultation, training, and technical assistance to State Agencies and their Stakeholders as a subject matter expert. Melissa recently completed her Doctoral coursework in Human and Organizational Learning, Executive Leadership Program and is in the process of completing her dissertation.