Melissa is a foreign affairs and diplomacy expert with a background in international policy institutes, university research and legal practice.

In a previous life, Melissa served 13 year as National Executive Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA), an independent international policy institute established as a branch of Chatham House in 1924, with close links to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Under her leadership, the AIIA was ranked the top think tank in Southeast Asia/Pacific for three consecutive years in the University of Pennsylvania's Global Go To Think Tanks Index. She also served as founding director of the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue, a five-year initiative funded by the Department of Defence and DFAT.

Melissa is an Honorary Fellow in the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne, where she was previously Director of Diplomacy at Asialink. She is a lawyer and specialist in conflict resolution, with academic credentials spanning law, arts and education at the University of Melbourne and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Melissa's work at the Lab draws on her extensive network across Asia and decades of experience in Australian foreign affairs.