Melissa is a registered and licensed dietitian serving as a faculty instructor for the Culinary Medicine Program at UAMS. Originally from the Garden State, born and raised outside Princeton New Jersey, Melissa graduated from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey with degrees in Politics and Dietetics. Afterwards, she completed her post-baccalaureate dietetic internship at Georgetown University. Melissa began her career as a corporate wellness dietitian for Compass Group USA’s Eurest Division. Her passion for wellness led her into a role at Princeton University as their Campus Wellness Dietitian.
At Princeton, she developed co-curricular nutrition education, staff engagement workshops and served as an outpatient dietitian. Her work focused greatly on the benefits of plant-based diets both for the individual and the environment alike. Mostly notably she established award-winning Teaching Kitchens during her time at Princeton University. Melissa, like many dietitians, has a strong passion for the teaching “food as medicine” through a functional medicine approach that focuses around learning the root cause of illness and disease states. When not at work you can find her rock climbing with her husband or hiking up Pinnacle Mountain with their chocolate lab Clapton. She loves anything and everything outdoors.