Biography

After earning her undergraduate degree, Melissa pursued her interest in psychology as a Mental Health Counselor at a residential treatment facility for adolescent females, infusing adventure based counseling into her work with teens. With this experience as a foundation, she later pursued a Master’s degree to gain additional knowledge of Human Development and Family Studies. In 2003, this native New Englander completed her graduate work and accepted a position as the Associate Director at Texas Christian University’s (TCU) Leadership Center as a facilitator, educator, consultant and organizational advisor. While at TCU, Melissa also served as the Strengths Coordinator, where she successfully advocated for the campus-wide use of Gallup’s strengths-based approach to leadership development, and focused on providing individualized development and training opportunities to both students and community members. Currently, Melissa is making progress in her efforts to complete a Ph.D. in Higher Education and to gain additional insight into the development of strengths-based leaders as she applies theory-to-practice as the Assistant Director to URI’s Center for Student Leadership Development. Melissa enjoys time in the classroom, in the outdoors, with her student leaders, and with her family.

Melissa’s CliftonStrengths: Input, Learner, Achiever, Deliberative, Harmony

Melissa’s Character Strengths: Judgement, Perseverance, Prudence, Love of Learning, Fairness

Ask Melissa about: HDF 190/FLITE, HDF 290/Modern Leadership Issues, HDF 412/Leadership Capstone option, HDF 413/SOLC, HDF 415/FLITE Peer Leaders, General Leadership Studies Minor advising / Leadership Minor Audits, CliftonStrengths Coaching

Research

Strengths-based leadership, collegiate leadership development, well-being, engagement, and women’s leadership and supervisory roles.

Education

Ph.D. (Candidate), Higher Education, University of North Texas

Master of Science, Human Development and Family Studies. Concentration: College Student Personnel, University of Rhode Island, 2003

Bachelor of Arts, Psychology with a minor in Sociology, University of Rhode Island, 1998

Selected Publications

Boyd-Colvin, M. A. and Branch, K. (2012). American West meets assessment woes. In F.K. Strange and S.M. Hubbard (Eds.), Linking theory to practice: Case studies for working with college students (76-81). New York: Routledge.