Term of Service
2023-2027
Bio
Melissa McCullough is retired from the US Environmental Protection Agency, where she was last the Associate National Program Director and Senior Sustainability Advisor of the Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program.
Melissa moved into Chapel Hill from the County in 2011. Prior to her election to the Town Council, Melissa served seven years on the Planning Commission, with liaison roles on the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Board and the Community Design Commission, and participated actively in Town planning issues before that. She served on the Orange County Climate Council, including as Chair, and has been active for nearly two decades in the Sierra Club, including as Chair of the Orange-Chatham Group and of the North Carolina Chapter Political Committee. She has served on the board of the Bike Alliance of Chapel Hill and was a happy participant in the art pop-ups on Franklin Street during the COVID time.
Melissa earned her BS in Psychology at the University of the South, in Sewanee, TN, and a Masters of Environmental Management in Applied Ecology and Environmental Toxicology at what was then the Duke University School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences (Grad school, so not a "Dukie"). Her first professional job was for the NC Division of Coastal Management where she pioneered land use planning approaches to protect water quality. Her career at the US EPA covered a range of environmental analysis and problem solving around air pollution, water pollution and community health. She built her expertise in Community Sustainability over the course of her nearly four-decade career.
Melissa has two grown children, Nate and Anna, who both work in the non-profit world, and a pandemic-pup, Maisie. She lives in the Franklin-Rosemary Historic District and usually gets around town on foot, e-scooter or e-bike. She loves Battle Park and likes to do urban sketching, especially in the small historic downtowns surrounding Chapel Hill.