She has a PhD in English from the University of Connecticut, and loves being back on the Eastern Shore (she got her MA in composition and rhetoric from SU)! She first became interested in writing center work as an undergraduate student at Wilkes University when she became a peer consultant while also working in a biology lab studying the food behaviors of eastern gray squirrels. This led her to a love of squirrels, birds, STEM writing, and writing studies. As a result, Melissa enjoys talking about First-Year Composition and Writing Across the Curriculum/Writing in the Disciplines and sees the University Writing Center as helping to create a culture of writing across the university community.