Melissa Mihocko currently works as the Women, Peace, and Security Subject Matter Expert at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare.

She served for 24 years in the Marine Corps, Active and Reserve, and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2016. 

As a junior officer, Melissa deployed on the USS Peleliu with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), the first West Coast MEU to integrate women.

As a civil affairs officer, she deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she worked as a civil-military liaison for Canadian, British, and Malaysian NATO forces during Operation Joint Guard, and to Kosovo in support of 26 MEU during Operation Joint Guardian.

In 2003, Melissa deployed as a field historian to Iraq, where she supported I Marine Expeditionary Force during Operation Iraqi Freedom – 1.

Upon returning, she mobilized for a year to research and write the historical monograph, U.S. Marines:  Combat Service Support During Operation Iraqi Freedom I (published in 2011), for Marine Corps History Division. She continued research and writing for History Division and submitted the manuscript, U.S. Marines:  The Changing Roles of Women During the Global War on Terrorism, which is currently in editing.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and spent several years working as a management consultant for Accenture Consulting in Washington, D.C.