While living in San Francisco, Melissa continued a modeling career that she began in college as a means to tackling her imminent avalanche of student loans.   Modeling had given her the opportunity of traveling and living throughout Europe for extended periods of time.  But like an old flame rising, her love of writing rekindled and took center stage.  Her first professional writing experience came in 2007 as an intern, writing and co-editing with Celebrity Chef and Best-Selling Author, Maria Liberati.  Since then, she has been working freelance for Liberati as a writer and publicist.  
Metropolitan life, mild weather, and shrimp salad sandwiches made for a great life in San Francisco.  But once the taste of the inevitable fog and refreshing, cool breeze of the bay became stale, it was evident Melissa yearned for newer, sunnier skies.  Just after six months of living San Francisco, she found herself in Los Angeles, the city of angels.  
    It may have been angelic at first sight, but still no sign of heaven after another six months.  The pizza was chewy and people were anything but angels.  “The Weather Channel” now just seemed like a really happy remake of  “Groundhog Day”.  Forecasts called for “plentiful sunshine” day after day, and not even a t-storm watch to get one’s blood pumping. 
Melissa re-welcomed the volatile four seasons of New Jersey and its incomparable pizza in 2007.  Just under a month ago, she became a permanent resident of Hoboken, NJ.  In between working in NYC as a model and writing for a photography studio, Allure West Studios, Melissa is looking forward to her new position as a freelance journalist for The Bridgewater Patch. This opportunity is especially exciting to her since she spent a great deal of her childhood at her father’s office building in Bridgewater.Along with writing, Melissa loves finding new avenues as well as existing ones to express her creativity.  As a first generation Ukrainian, she is constantly striving to recreate the homemade, sought-after recipes of her grandmother with equal authenticity and passion.  One of the best ways Melissa can channel her creativity is through her role as an aunt to her two nephews, Lars and Aiden and her niece, Bella.  As her muse, they inspire her to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a children’s author.   But until then, she caters her stories to a special audience of three!