Melissa Dearborn is a 2025 Teach Plus National Teacher Policy Cabinet member, her career is distinguished by her commitment to leveraging innovative educational strategies to prepare students for future success. Her extensive experience in educational technology, curriculum design, and policy advocacy positions her as an expert voice on integrating innovative strategies into career and technical education (CTE), improving literacy outcomes, and supporting all students in developing the skills and guidance needed to thrive in their future careers. She has contributed to courses at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working alongside Dr. Christopher Dede on a course that explored how educational technologies can address global and local challenges in education. She also served as a teaching assistant for MIT’s course on Virtualizing the Human Body, focusing on virtual reality (VR) development, haptic technologies, and hardware integration in VR. Her expertise in educational technology has led her to advocate for policies integrating advanced technologies into career and technical education (CTE), fostering hands-on learning that prepares students for careers in the rapidly evolving job market.
Melissa’s work with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) highlights her leadership in shaping state educational policies. She served on the MCAS English Language Arts Assessment Development Committee, the Curriculum Rating By Teachers (CURATE) Fellowship, and the Rethinking Equity in the Teaching of English Language Learners (RE-TELL) initiative. She was selected by DESE as a model educator, and her teaching practices were featured in DESE’s statewide teacher training program aimed at improving instructional practices for English language learners. Through her work with the Education Alliance at Brown University, Melissa also gained specialized training to enhance learning for culturally and linguistically diverse students.
Melissa’s involvement extends to policy advocacy as a Teach Plus Massachusetts Policy Fellow, where she focused on improving literacy outcomes by supporting the Science of Reading and promoting evidence-based reading instruction.
Melissa holds several Massachusetts educator and pupil support credentials for PreK-12, including Early Childhood and moderate disabilities. She earned her M.Ed. in Specialized Studies at Harvard Graduate School of Education, focusing on educational technology and school leadership, and a dual degree B.S./M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University.
