Melissa is the Senior Sustainability Coordinator at American Electric Power, where she has more than 10 years of experience. She is co-author and project manager of AEP's Corporate Accountability Report, a combination of AEP's annual report to shareholders and sustainability report. In addition to the report, Melissa's role focuses on setting, implementing and tracking new corporate sustainability goals that are aligned with AEP's corporate strategy and business initiatives. She is also responsible for responding to several investor-focused sustainability surveys to help manage risk and build trust through transparency. She is co-founder of AEP's Enterprise Sustainability Council, which builds strategic internal partnerships to support the company's sustainability efforts and business strategy and goals. Currently, she is working on developing a sustainability strategy focused on collaborating and supporting internal business units to help embed sustainability and good engagement practices throughout the organization.

Melissa holds her undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University in Strategic Communications and is a graduate of Leadership Columbus' Class of 2017. She also sits on Leadership Columbus' Board of Trustees and actively volunteers at her daughter's elementary school, the Van Buren Community Shelter and the Chapel Hill House. She resides in Gahanna, OH with her husband Zack; three daughters, Ava (13), Veda (8) and Lola (4); and English black lab, Otis.