Melissa Shaw

Melissa is a marketing and communications professional, a mom of three elementary-aged kids, and a proud Army turned Space Force spouse.

Early in her career, Melissa served as a Henry Luce Scholar and lived in Taipei, Taiwan. Since then, she has gone to New York City, Missouri, Colorado, and more.

She values hard work, faith, dedication to family, and determination. She and her husband, Nick, approach their life as a team where they are both active players in the goals and next steps of their military life.

Melissa became a military spouse when she married Nick in 2012, beginning as an Army family before Nick’s transition to the Space Force soon after its creation. Together, they have been assigned many duty stations, two OCONUS assignments, and a total of 36 months of combat deployments between Iraq and Afghanistan.

Melissa is extremely passionate about military spouse un- and under-employment. Having her own career affected by military life, she wants to make a change for future generations of military spouses. Melissa was the co-owner of a social media startup, creating a successful military spouse employment program and employing over a dozen military spouses. The startup was acquired in 2020 and is still going strong today.

In addition to her work on military spouse employment issues, Melissa volunteers in various roles like Army FRG Leader, Space Force Key Spouse Mentor, community & spouses club officer, and Vice Chair of the Air & Space Forces Foundation’s F2 Task Force.

Melissa and her husband have three children named Will, Nate, and Lorelei, as well as two dogs. Melissa has always been active, formerly running marathons and hiking the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim. Now, her favorite activities are ones that she can do with her kids like dog walks, bike rides, hiking, family movie nights, and going to their local library.