Melanie is a 2021–22 MIT Knight Science Journalism Project Fellow and 2022 Vermont Law School Media Fellow. She graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications and Columbia Journalism School and has been freelancing for 25 years, covering travel, science and animals.

Melanie has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, People, National Parks and Reader's Digest. She has interviewed Miss Piggy, Jon Bon Jovi, Laird Hamilton, Isabella Rossellini, Allison Janney, Katie Couric, Alan Greenspan,  James Dyson and hundreds of people you've never heard of but who she considers rock stars.

A third-generation Washingtonian, Melanie is the daughter of an engineer with a ham radio business and an artist who enjoys wordplay. She began driving cross-country in 2007, with beagle Darwin, the inspiration behind, With Dog As My Co-Pilot: A Cross-Country Drive Seems Like a Walk in the Park. She and beagle Hammy have made that coast-to-coast trip several times, visiting almost all 50 states. When they're not on the road, they live in an 11-foot-wide house in Washington, D.C.

Photo: James Haworth