Melissa is the founding Scientific Director of Oasis Fertility Centre, where she built the Embryology and Andrology Laboratory from the ground up. She brought 15 years of IVF experience to the role, gained across a number of Australian clinics and including managing another IVF laboratory. Experience that is reflected in every aspect of how the lab runs today.

Since the laboratory opened its doors, Melissa and her team have welcomed over 200 babies into the world, with hundreds more on the way. Behind each of those families is a team that Melissa leads with genuine care for every patient’s journey. She feels a deep sense of responsibility for every embryo, egg and sperm sample in the team’s care and is invested in giving every patient the best possible chance of success.
That sense of responsibility drives her eye for detail and her constant pursuit of excellence, whether in the lab’s equipment and technology, the skills of her team or the outcomes for patients. It also underpins her commitment to ethical practice and transparency. Melissa is passionate about opening up the traditional “black box” of the embryology lab, so patients can better understand what happens behind the scenes.
For Melissa, openness also means widening who can access care. She is driving the development of an inclusive donor program at Oasis and is committed to opening the door to fertility treatment for a broader range of patients and families.

A natural curiosity has always drawn Melissa to research and keeps her at the forefront of new developments in the field. During her Master’s in Human Biology, she explored the biochemistry of women undergoing IVF and in early pregnancy, work that went on to be published internationally and presented at the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) conference. Her interest later turned to time-lapse incubation and non-invasive ways of assessing embryos, and she was invited to share her insights as a speaker at the Scientists in Reproductive Technology (SIRT) conference.
Melissa is just as passionate about sharing knowledge as she is about building it. She is currently co-supervising an Honours student at the University of Western Australia whose project explores an often-overlooked perspective: the experience of Australian men going through IVF with preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) alongside their partners. She has lectured at Edith Cowan University in both postgraduate Assisted Reproduction and undergraduate Human Reproduction and is regularly invited to present at education seminars for healthcare professionals outside the fertility field. Closer to home, she takes great joy in mentoring the junior embryologists in her team.

Melissa is registered as a Clinical Scientist with the Australian Council for the Certification of the Medical Laboratory Scientific Workforce, and is a member of FSANZ, SIRT and the Australian Institute of Medical Scientists.
Her influence reaches well beyond the lab, helping to shape a compassionate, knowledgeable and inclusive future for fertility care.