Melissa has a PhD in social psychology from the University of Melbourne, which explored how people persuade others to agree with their moral beliefs. She has an ongoing interest in the field of moral psychology and applied ethics, including workplace flexibility, gender roles in work and care, ethical climates, and responsible leadership. Melissa's research has been published in top tier journals, including Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Cities, European Review of Social Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. She regularly contributes to Forbes, Psychology Today, and the Conversation on the topics of leadership strategy, the future of work, and applied ethics.

Primarily teaching leadership in the MBA and Executive MBA Programs, Melissa is the Executive MBA Program Director at RMIT University and has previously served as Major Discipline Coordinator for the Management Major at Swinburne University of Technology. She has experience in co-creating and delivering units with industry partners, such as Siemens Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia, and Financial Services Learning. She holds a Deans' Teaching Excellence Award and a Norman Curry Award for Innovation and Excellence for Educational Programs from the University of Melbourne and a Dean's and Vice Chancellor's Award for teaching excellence from Swinburne.

In service to the academic community, she has held roles as Leader in the Career Development Program within the Swinburne Women's Academic Network, Early Career Researcher Training Coordinator, Theme Lead of the Social Psychology of Innovation Group (Ethics of Innovation), and Co-creator of the Australian Leadership Index.