Books/ebooks top Melissa's list of specialties because she enjoys researching and writing in-depth on a topic. Press releases are another type of writing at which she has excelled. She has written article series and blogs on a wide range of topics, and can write casually, but also has the technical background for writing white papers and reports.
Melissa is interested in all aspects of the online environment. Writing fiction and interactive ebooks designed to help children learn to read are at the top of her personal project list. She would also like to develop her graphics skills to complement her writing.
Education, parenting, health and social justice are strong personal commitments.
Team sports are of little interest, but just about anything else is fair game!
In addition to the general studies and engineering basics requirements, the environmental engineering program covered analysis and remediation of water, air and solid waste.
Melissa spent one semester with the Audubon Expedition Institute, an accredited college program in environmental education. The semester was spent traveling the in the southwest U.S. studying the environment, culture and consensus community.
In addition to writing and editing blog posts for a few non-profits, Melissa worked as the office administrator for a church for two years and edited the organization's newsletter. She has also served as Secretary to the Board of Trustees for four years, so is very familiar with the workings of non-profits. Her most recent writing project in this niche was for a non-profit corporation that markets software to other nonprofits, which included a lot of research on B2B nonprofits and fundraising.
Melissa has been writing for the web for about six years and has worked with clients through many different phases of internet development and SEO changes. Fortunately, the trend of littering articles with keywords started winding down not too long after she came on the scene, and the trend toward high quality content has continued, because she would much rather write valuable information than quick-and-dirty drivel.
Web content is about marketing--whether directly, as on on a sales or product promotion site, or more subtly, in a blog or cause-related page. Melissa has written marketing messages in all those forms and many more, and specializes in identifying the right audience, and writing in the voice appropriate to each website.
Melissa has written articles and ebooks for clients who are health professionals, including both those that focus on fitness and those who are more nutrition oriented. She is familiar with several different models of training (boot camp, interval training, etc.) and many different diet and lifestyle eating programs from vegetarian to keto.
Melissa's writing for the medical field has included social media posts for medical doctors, chiropractors and plastic surgeons, as well as weight loss and natural health practitioners. She has also written many articles and blogs for those practices, as well as ebooks for weight loss and testosterone management and content for a site that was designed to be a medical professional's go-to resource.
Melissa has been interested in nutrition since the '70s, and has seen many health trends come and go--from the avoidance of coconut because it contained the dreaded saturated fat, to the rise of coconut oil as the latest, greatest thing. She has written about nutrition from many different aspects, including weight loss, testosterone, natural remedies, children's growth, vegetarian, paleo, aging, nursing, etc.
Melissa's writing in finance has been primarily on debt management, tax season, loans, budgeting and retirement planning. Many of the articles were for an informational website that required all pieces to relate to current events or news. Research was done online and topics were chosen to have broad appeal, not for sophisticated investors, but to provide basic information to the general public, particularly those who may be seeking loans or help with debt.
Melissa enjoys writing on subjects related to women, because she likes researching topics that empower women, and that help us understand issues related to women in the various stages of life. She sees the changing role of women as one of the most powerful forces for change.
She has written and edited blogs, articles and ebooks on many subjects related to women, including fertility, herbal remedies, menopause, health, and success. Two examples of specifics covered would be how women are affected by outdated values we are taught as children, and transformations that occur as we age.
Melissa has been writing content for the Web since 2008, and most of that has been for clients who are attempting to bolster search engine results, either by including keyword-oriented content on their sites or posting articles to get backlinks. She has closely followed Google's algorithm updates and provides quality content that utilizes keywords and related terms to optimize search results while keeping content readable for site visitors.
Melissa has written about adventure vacations around the world for a company that leads small group trips. Writing these pieces involved not only researching points of interest in each region, but also making sure the correct locations and modes of transportation for each tour were correctly described.
She grew up in Hawaii, and since then has lived in California, Vermont, New Mexico, Colorado, and currently resides in Florida.
Melissa has a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering and has worked in environmental engineering and water resources as a consultant, lab scientist, researcher and computer modeler, and designer. She has worked in bioremediation, Superfund site compliance, mine reclamation and stream restoration, many of which have required writing reports for private clients, state agencies and EPA.
Melissa has written about various aspects of relationships, from finding the right one to making it last, for blogs, ebooks, and self help products. She likes writing about the topic, because she considers our relationships, whether romantic, familial, or even professional, to be a vital part of how we live, and who we grow into over the course of our lives. And there's nowhere that we are more challenged to be our best selves than in our closest relationships, so they not only open up opportunities outside ourselves, but also present many inroads into getting a better understanding of who we are inside.
Melissa has written and edited several ebooks and article series on fitness. The emphasis of all of them has been on bodyweight exercises, interval training, HIIT, or health maintenance by simple daily activity.
Melissa is committed to living a green lifestyle, and has used green products whenever possible. She often cleans with vinegar and baking soda, or natural products found in stores. She loves the trend of making furnishings and flooring from bamboo. She has written several blogs for clients on green products.
Since her childhood in Hawaii, Melissa has been committed to caring for the earth and living a green lifestyle. For her, this has meant being a vegetarian for over 30 years, minimizing waste, and having as little impact on the planet as possible. She reuses or recycles everything she can. Her most recent endeavor is backyard chickens, which not only lay eggs, but have turned out to be a lot of fun. She has ghost-written a few blogs on green topics, and is interested in all aspects of green living.
Melissa is married and has a 13-year-old son. She regards parenting as her most important job and likes to make use of as many resources as she can.
She comes from a close family and grew up with a lot of interaction with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and she likes to support families in finding things to do together and ways to enjoy each other's company.
She writes for new, young families as well as those with teens and the in-betweens.
Melissa has always been interested in self help and believes there are many different ways to make life better, and they almost all start with the individual. She encourages self-exploration and recognizing that not only is every person different, but each of us changes greatly with each stage of life, so what works one year may not be helpful the next. Her writing in this field has been primarily on goal setting and self esteem.
Melissa has experience as a tutor for elementary and middle school reading and math. She also has a child who attends a Montessori charter school and has a personal interest in the public educational system, alternative education, and homeschooling.
Melissa has a degree in environmental engineering and worked as a consultant on several Superfund projects. She also worked for three years in a bioremediation lab, where she extracted, cultured, and preserved microbes, as well as using them to remediate soil and process spent mine ore. She also ran the ICP to analyze results.
She has also worked in stream remediation, surveying stream systems and habitats and designing land use plans.
Melissa has always been interested in spirituality and has explored many diverse paths. She loves to support others in their own searches for the truth, and finds value in many different teachings. Spiritual paths she has studied or practiced include Native American traditions, Christianity, channeling, mindfulness practice, yoga, Buddhism, Druidry, and Unitarian Universalism.
Melissa has ghost written and edited ebooks that have been used as free offers, sold, and promoted to establish authority. She enjoys this kind of writing because it allows a more in depth presentation of the topic than individual articles. She is skilled at taking large amounts of information and organizing it in a logical and easy-to-follow sequence.