Melissa is an Early Career Researcher in Education at the University of Roehampton, leading on an institution-wide initiative to develop a research and knowledge exchange culture and citizenship across staff and postgraduate students. In 2021 she was elected to serve as an Academic Representative on the University Senate. Melissa is also a Director for Advance HE’s Diversifying Leadership Programme which aims to promote a leadership mindset for BAME academic and professional staff across UK Higher Education institutions. She held a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Comparative and International Education (2015) and completed her PhD on comparative education systems part-time at the Australian National University (2017), while working as a Project and Communications Manager. Melissa is enthusiastic about research-led teaching. In 2020 she was shortlisted for a university-wide Academic Lecturer of the Year award by the Roehampton Students’ Union (RSU). Melissa’s research focuses on education for social wellbeing, which proposes a meta-theory of social activism overarching health education, critical race theory, social welfare, and postcolonial pedagogy. Her theoretical insights have led to recent British Academy and UKRI funding awards (2019-2021), multiple small grants focusing on oral care for young children using gardening techniques (2021-2022), and knowledge exchange projects funded by BIG South London (2021) and the Cathedrals Group (2020).