Melissa has been working as a Research Associate (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) as part of the ActiveLearn project at the University of Oldenburg since February 2017. She started her PhD with the focus 'Facilitating student engagement through educational technology', supervised by Prof. Dr. Olaf Zawacki-Richter, in October 2017.

Melissa was a Teaching Assistant in the Master of Distance Education course, offered by the University of Oldenburg in conjunction with UMUC Maryland. She was also a Teaching Assistant in the course 'Instructional Design: Internationale Forschungsperspektive', with a focus on student engagement and systematic review methodology, at the University of Oldenburg.

Melissa studied a Bachelor of International Studies (History/Politics), a Diploma in Languages (German) and a Graduate Diploma in Education (Secondary) at the University of Adelaide. She worked for 10 years as a high school teacher in South Australia, predominantly of German, Humanities, English and IT, as well as a Coordinator of Humanities and Foreign Languages, Year 8 Coordinator and Acting Coordinator of IT. Melissa then completed a Graduate Certificate in eLearning from the University of New England, and graduated in 2016 with a Master of Education from the University of Adelaide.