Melissa has been a Duke Nurse for 19 years – all at Duke. She brings to her current role extensive knowledge and experience from caring for patients in the Cardiothoracic ICU and Stepdown Unit, and the 11 years she spent with the Duke Transplant Center, where she was a Coordinator – first for Cardiac Transplant, and then for Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement. She now oversees the operations for 13 heart-related registries across Duke Health, leads projects to drive process improvement, and identifies opportunities in care delivery, quality and safety. For example, she supported a multidisciplinary team in a project aimed at early extubation for cardiac surgery patients that led to a 25% improvement, which enhanced registry results and patient outcomes.