Melanie began her working career salting pork bellies to later be turned into bacon at a local meat market at age 12. Her initial career path while in college was to train Shamu. This afforded her the opportunity to study abroad in Costa Rica and chase mating turtles throughout Presque Isle, but once realizing that there are only so many Shamus, she redirected her trajectory towards business and politics. Her passion for politics, passed on from her father, took her to serve in several roles on the local, state and national levels. She has managed campaigns, raised funds, consulted and attended every pot luck dinner from here to oblivion supporting her candidate. These candidates have included local township supervisors, city mayors, local judges, state senators, and US Congressmen.Melanie’s love of politics was surpassed by her love of her family when she decided to stay local as opposed to pursuing opportunities in Washington D.C. She then accepted an opportunity to manage senior and student housing communities for a local development company, where she was responsible for the leasing and marketing, as well as over-seeing daily operations for over 1500 apartments. It was here that she fell in love with real estate and the opportunity to assist and advocate for people buying and selling their homes. Melanie became a licensed agent and Realtor in 2012, and has helped over 200 families find or sell their home. In 2018, still loving real estate, she wanted a change in her “day job” and accepted a position with a home health care company, where she managed over 125 employees, and together, they provided nursing care to over 100 children in the Erie County area. She left that job in October of 2019 to focus her career on real estate and return to her passion in politics. Currently, Melanie owns and operates her own political consulting firm and continues to help Erie families buy or sell their homes, businesses or vacant land. In 2021, Melanie and her business partner, John Beuchert, launched two new companies. Away Together, which assists travelers in breaking the communication barrier and Spikesology, a platform to help engage those with a dementia diagnosis to increase independence. In her downtime, she enjoys brainstorming business ideas, serving on local boards, and traveling. Professionally, Melanie most enjoys seeing a project all the way through to its end goal.