Melanie is a native of the San Diego area. She obtained her B.S., from University of California, Irvine in 2016 in Public Health. She originally was led to the field of pharmaceuticals, but then decided that although she liked the medical field, wanted something different. As such, she then went on to obtain her A.A.S in Occupational Therapy Assistant from Pima Medical Institute in San Marcos and recently graduated in 5/2022.

Prior to becoming a COTA, Melanie was a registered behavioral technician where she worked in schools and in homes of children ages 3-19 years old with developmental disabilities and Autism. She also has experiences in the educational system as an instructional assistant at an elementary school in a PreK ASD class where she targeted and worked with children on zones of regulation targeting IEP goals.

Melanie’s field work experiences consist of working with adults in a skilled nursing facility with ADL’s and IADL tasks. There she had the opportunity to administer assessments including SLUMS, MMT, and Modified Barthel Index.

She also had pediatric field work experiences in a private practice in the LA area where she worked with children with ASD, CP, down syndrome and other developmental delays in both a group skills class for school readiness (early intervention program) and also 1:1 center based. She also had the opportunity to administer the DAYC-2 and Sensory Profile 2 for toddlers as well as worked on gross/fine motor, feeding and self-regulation skills with her caseload alongside her clinical supervisor.