Melissa came to Langley and started her NASA career in the Engineering Directorate’s Mechanical Systems Branch and currently resides in the Science Directorate’s Flight Projects Branch. Most recently Melissa served as the Project Manager for the Radiation Budget Instrument (RBI) Project and as co-lead for the Return to Onsite Work (RTOW) Mission Planning Team. She has served in other project leadership positions such as the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Flight Model (FM) 6 Simulator project, the Materials International Space Station Experiment-X (MISSE-X), Development and Evaluation of satellite ValidatiOn Tools by Experimenters (DEVOTE), and Thermal Protection System (TPS) Advanced Development Project (ADP) for the Orion headshield. Melissa has supported the development of LaRC proposals such as NAAMES, MISSE-X, and DEVOTE, serving as a team member and/or proposal manager. Prior to coming to NASA, Melissa worked for NASA support contractors including Micro Craft, Inc., Allied Aerospace and Swales Aerospace. Melissa has developed detailed designs for fabrication of a variety of wind tunnel models, research prototypes and flight systems hardware. Melissa received her Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.