Melissa has recently self-published her book Water Walkers: portraits of Ghana's street vendors, a sociological photo essay of 100 water vendors, mostly young and female, on the streets of Ghana. She has been an adjunct faculty member of the DePaul University Dept. of Sociology, has traveled extensively as a member of educational and humanitarian projects in Ghana, Panama and Siberia. In the United States, Melissa has designed applied quantitative research projects to better understand business, transportation and environmental issues for a variety of agencies and organizations. Melissa holds advanced degrees from DePaul University (M.A. in Sociology) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (M.S. in Urban Studies and Planning).