Mel initially joined WRFI as a field instructor in 2017 and served as the organization’s Outreach Manager from 2019-2022. She grew up on the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi with perpetually sandy toes and salty hair, but she eventually found her way to the mainland, where she discovered a fondness for craggy mountains and temperate rainforest moss. Mel first moved to Montana to earn a master’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, where she studied environmental rhetoric, place-based education, and the intersections between Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western modern science. She has instructed several different WRFI courses, including Restoration Ecology, Environmental Ethics, and Montana Afoot and Afloat.