Melissa earned her PhD in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Washington (Seattle) in 2014. Her dissertation "Digital Literary Arts -Scandinavian E-Texts: Criticism, Theory, and Practice" looks specifically at E-Lit from Scandinavian countries. She also holds an M.A. in Linguistics, and an M.S. in Speech Pathology. Her interests include Scandinavian E-lit, Hans Christian Andersen's literature, visual-textual interactions in electronic works, linguistics (phonetics and phonology), neurogenic speech/language disorders, cats, ferrets, and co-op board games.