Melissa is a second year student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of Rhode Island focusing in research methodology and multiculturalism, as well as serving as a research coordinator in the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School Center for Addiction Medicine. Her research interests involve the application of positive psychology principles to reduce the incidence of binge drinking among college students. Specifically, her thesis is focusing on the role of positive affect and positive emotions in understanding the tension-reduction hypothesis of alcohol use.