Melissa is the founder of Charette Studios, a brand and product studio that uses deep customer research to help companies grow. Since 2020, she’s worked hand-in-hand with founders and senior executives to reduce customer acquisition costs, accelerate franchise scale, and was instrumental to taking an early-stage company from a $17M to $100M valuation in three years.

Before Charette, she spent 5 years as the Chief Experience Officer at Ellevest, the first investment platform to truly engage women. She was the 5th employee and designed the brand and product experience from the ground up. Her work tapped into the lived experiences women have with money, transforming how the industry approaches female investors — an approach that has since been replicated by Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and others across financial services.

Earlier in her career, Melissa led the redesign of Vogue.com as the magazine transitioned from a static homepage to a responsive, digital publication. Her UX and strategy was applied across the Condé Nast suite of publications and is still the structure underneath Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, Wired, Glamour and more.

She was named an “Innovator” by AdWeek, earned two Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards and received an Interbrand “Brand to Watch” designation. She has been featured on the cover of Money Magazine, appeared on Bloomberg’s Face of Finance, and participated as a recurring panelist on the Design Exec Club alongside Brian Collins and Eddie Opara. She has keynoted at Tech Circus, FDS NY and the FinTech Disruptor Forum, and AIGA New York.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, she lives in the rivertowns of New York with her husband and son.