Melissa Williams has over 15 years’ experience in the conduct and administration of research and program evaluation. She has worn many hats during her time at SERVE! Melissa’s primary work has included participation and oversight on multiple program evaluations including a federally funded Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant (multi-site), two federally funded Teaching American History Grants and 21st Century Grants, as well as state-level Supplemental Educational Services evaluation for NCDPI for three consecutive years, to name a few. For these and other projects, she designed instruments, conducted interviews and focus groups, managed large datasets, utilized data analysis software (e.g., Excel, SPSS, SAS), and reported results.

Melissa’s experience also includes designing extensive data collection protocols and providing training and ongoing technical assistance to staff on the implementation of those protocols. In addition to her evaluation work, from 2006-2011 Melissa served as the Associate Coordinator for Research Studies for the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL-SE) contract at SERVE Center. In this role she coordinated the efforts of two study teams conducting randomized control trials in the Southeast. Her duties included all aspects of compliance with University IRB and Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) protocols as well as the oversight of the submission of U.S. Department of Education deliverables and providing quality control for all materials related to these deliverables. Other specific activities included presentation of study design and/or dissemination of results at professional conferences, monthly status reporting to funding agencies, creation of data collection protocols/manuals, data collection oversight and quality control, formal reporting of results to clients, and meeting preparation (e.g., preparing agendas, taking and distributing meeting minutes). It was also during this time period that Melissa was recommended to become a member of the UNCG IRB (2010-2012).

On a personal note, Melissa is proud to be a mom to two beautiful children, Owen and Helen, and is a supportive theatre wife to her husband, Marc, a professional Director and faculty member at a state university. In her non-existent free time 😉, Melissa loves to sing, read, and knit, and nothing makes her happier than traveling with her family.