Melissa is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Science, Technology, & Environmental Policy cluster at the School of Public & International Affairs. She focuses on climate policy and behavior, with particular interests in interactions between scales of government and individual decision-making in response to local environmental policies. She is interested in tying these theoretical topics to applied research on coastal resilience, managed retreat, and building/transportation infrastructure in the context of emergency preparedness.

Prior to joining the Princeton community, Melissa worked for 5 years as the first Sustainability Program Manager in the Office of Sustainability at Swarthmore College, where she developed innovative programs related to the climate crisis, zero waste, and environmental justice. During this time, she also completed a part-time MSc in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford. Her master’s thesis applied urban governance theories to strategic risk planning for sustainability, with a case study of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. She previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University, and holds a BA in Psychology from Swarthmore.