Prior to joining the UMW faculty in Fall 2017, she lived in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where she spent eight years as a third grade teacher, kindergarten teacher, and elementary literacy coach. Her research interests relate to critical literacy, critical digital literacy in early childhood, and teachers’ identities and how they are enacted in classroom settings. In her free time, Melissa enjoys playing piano, singing in the Fredericksburg Singers, playing in the Castings handbell ensemble with the Stafford Regional Handbell Society, reading, and spending time with her border collie mix, Oreo, and her husband, Robert, who is also on the faculty at UMW.