She convenes post-graduate courses in Environmental Health and Aboriginal health and lectures on pollution and climate change in many courses for medical and public health students. Melissa is a highly experienced researcher in environmental health, Aboriginal health, mental health and community empowerment. She is active in many local and professional advocacy organisations dedicated to the protection of health and the environment, including the Doctors for the Environment Australia, the Public Health Association of Australia and the Climate and Health Alliance. She frequently writes and contributes to government submissions and gives community presentations highlighting health and climate risks associated with unconventional gas and longwall and open cut coal mining. She is firmly committed to global and inter-generational equity.