Melissa is an award-winning health and medical writer and journalist. She has a wealth of experience writing for professional and lay audiences.

To ALYKA, she brings her specialty in creatively explaining complicated health and medical concepts in patient writing, along with her extensive background in public health and as a researcher to provide easy-to-understand, actionable, and evidence-based content to empower patient communities.

She has worked across the healthcare spectrum, serving in nonprofit, hospital, and global settings. Prior to joining ALYKA Health, Melissa served as the Senior Patient Engagement Writer with OPEN Health’s United Kingdom-based Patient Engagement Team. Melissa also served as a Writer and Editor for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) in Washington, DC.  PCORI is a nonprofit organization that funds research to provide patients, caregivers, and clinicians with evidence-based information to make better-informed healthcare decisions. 

Melissa holds a BS in anthropology and human biology, and journalism from Emory University and an MPH in behavioral science and health education from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She also holds an MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.