PowerToFly Summit

Melissa serves as Executive Director of the Military Spouse Program at Hiring Our Heroes,where she leads the vision, strategy, and national expansion of initiatives that advanceeconomic opportunity for military spouses. She drives enterprise-wide programinnovation, oversees research and advocacy efforts, and forges high-impact partnershipsacross the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to remove employment barriers anddeliver scalable workforce solutions for military families.Prior to Joining Hiring Our Heroes, Melissa built and led the end-to-end talent acquisitionfunction at Freedom Learning Group, a private equity–backed EdTech company. Sheestablished and designed the recruiting strategy, workforce planning capabilities, andscalable hiring infrastructure to support rapid, sustained growth. Her leadership enabledthe development of a high-performing, mission-driven talent organization aligned to thecompany’s expanding global footprint.Earlier in her career at Capital One, Melissa held roles spanning Technology, RiskManagement, and Human Resources, where she partnered closely with senior executivesto drive strategic talent initiatives. She played a pivotal role in executive recruiting, helping to build the company’s Retail Bank leadership team, and was instrumental in launchingCapital One’s first military-focused recruiting strategy. Melissa was raised in a military family at Fort Meade, Maryland, and is a military spouse.