For over a decade, Melody has worked to expand equity and access to computer science in her school, district, state, and nationally. She began her teaching career as a middle school science teacher and fell in love with computer science when she started sponsoring an after school computational modeling club. That spark continued as she transitioned to high school, where she spent the last ten years teaching computer science courses and developing recruitment strategies and curricula to appeal to all students, especially female students, English Learners, and students with special needs. Her thesis for her master’s degree was concentrated on the impact of intentional gender grouping in computer science and technical classes.

Melody has been leading professional development almost as long as she has been teaching. She has led workshops for numerous projects, including Project GUTS, UVa’s Tapestry and Lighthouse programs, Project GUTS, Code.org’s CS in Science, and NMSU’s CompThink. She continues to work on the EDC’s Science + C initiative, for incorporating computer modeling and computational thinking into high school science courses.

Melody served as an officer for New Mexico’s chapter of the CSTA, and has been recognized for her work in the classroom with several awards, including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, the Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico Excellence in Teaching Award, the Las Cruces Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Educator Award, and the National Center for Women in Information Technology National Educator Award.

When she isn’t working, Melody loves making music, spending time with her husband and baby boy, blogging about travel, and taking Snapchat photos with her grandmother.