Melissa first came to CAL in 2018 as an intern for the Assessment and Evaluation Language Resource Center (AELRC) working on CAL-AELRC joint projects. She joined the Language Assessment Division as a Language Testing Specialist in 2020. Before joining CAL, she worked in digital media localization, preparing multimedia materials for multilingual and international use. She holds an M.S. in Applied Linguistics from Georgetown University, a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Cedarville University, and, only occasionally relevant to linguistics work, a teacher’s Intermediate Professional certification in Cecchetti ballet from the Cecchetti Council of America