Melissa is a doctoral candidate in Classical Archaeology with research interests in numismatics, ancient economy and trade, and urban and domestic life, spanning the Roman Republican to mid-Imperial periods. Her dissertation focuses on socio-economic connectivity and interactions between the Latin colony of Cosa and other cities in Central/South Etruria during the Middle Republic. She has been a member of the staff at Cosa Excavations since 2016, where she is a Trench Supervisor and studies the numismatic material. She has also excavated with the Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project and Grand Valley State University at Charlton Park in Hastings, MI. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she earned her Masters in Classical Archaeology from Florida State University, attended Georgetown University’s post-baccalaureate program in Classics, and earned her BA in Anthropology from Grand Valley State University. While studying at Georgetown, she was an intern and Project Assistant at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection in the National Museum of American History, where she contributed to the “Value of Money” exhibition.