n 2002, Melissa graduated from the University of Colorado and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army as part of the Transportation Corps. Two year later she deployed with the 1st Cavalry Division to Baghdad, Iraq.  On April 13, 2004, she was on a routine convoy when her HUMVEE was hit by a roadside bomb. The blast resulted in the amputation of her left leg above the knee and she became the first female to ever lose a limb in active combat. After a year of rehab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center she was medically retired with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. She quickly adapted into a life of sports and went on to swim in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics before turning to the sport of triathlon in 2009. She is a 3x Paratriathlon World Champion and a recent bronze medalist from the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Melissa loves giving back to the multisport community and is the co-founder of the Chicago based Dare2tri Paratriathlon club where she helps get other athletes with disabilities into the sport of triathlon. She is a level 1 triathlon coach and currently serves as chair of the USAT Womens Committee and is a trustee with the USAT Foundation.

Melissa currently travels the nation for her career as a motivational speaker and runs a prosthetics company with her husband in Colorado Springs.

Melissa is a proud above the knee amputee, a proud American and proudly lives a life of sport. She feels she has done more in her life with one leg than she ever would have done with two. She is married to her husband Brian and together they have two young children, Dallas Patrick and Millie Lynn and own a prosthetic company in Colorado Springs, CO. Melissa is currently training with hopes of her third Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020.