Melissa is President and Founder of Rectify—a woman-led tech company that leverages machine learning to protect consumer identities when data is shared with third parties. Melissa is an innovative, futuristic thinker with the consistent ability to catalyze grand ideas that influence positive change. In her career, Melissa is known as an automation expert, solving challenging dilemmas involved with protecting private data. She has developed best practices for data privacy and good data stewardship. She and her team are seen as data warriors, on a mission to standardize smart, safe data sharing.
Over her tenure, Melissa has interacted with data 4x the size of the Library of Congress. Because of this expertise, she has the unique ability to endorse data protection methods and asses workflows that scale based on the volume of data required to be protected.
Melissa is an avid volunteer, focusing her efforts on inspiring and creating legacy projects for data stewardship as well as women in tech and the arts. As a woman working in the tech industry, Melissa sees the insatiable need to empower other women in tech and increase the density of females working in this space. Melissa’s love of the performing arts began at a very young age – taking ballet, tap and jazz classes four nights a week. Melissa maintained her dancing hobby for 13 years and competed on many regional and national stages. Dancing also led her to playing the piano, flute and alto saxophone. Melissa believes that cultivating art appreciation is an integral part of society’s social composition.
Melissa enjoys long-distance hiking, traveling the world, exploring unique wines to collect and spending quality time with her husband, Brian Smith, and their two dogs.
