Melissa S. Reeves received her B.S. in chemistry at the University of Florida (1988) and her Ph.D. in chemistry at Indiana University at Bloomington (1991). She is a Professor of Chemistry and Assistant Department Head at Tuskegee University, a private, historically black, masters-granting institution with Ph.D. programs in select areas.  Reeves’ research interests in computational physical chemistry have ranged from calculating transition states of small molecule reactions in solution to molecular dynamics of polymers, although she is transitioning to focus on chemical education research. 

In addition to being the 2021 Ashford Fellow with the ACS Exams Institute, she has served on two consecutive Physical Chemistry Exams committees and currently is on the Exams Institute Board of Trustees.  She was part of the Physical Chemistry Online (PCOL) group in the early 2000s, and she currently participates in the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning Physical Chemistry Laboratory (POGIL-PCL) community.  She is a participant in the POGIL Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) project. 

She has served with the POGIL Project as a member (2016-present) and as a leader (2020-21) of the Strategic Plan Working Group for the POGIL Activity Clearinghouse.  From 2004-06, she served as the Director of Undergraduate Research for Tuskegee University, and from 2005-2011, she was the Director of the Tuskegee University Material Science and Engineering Research Experience for Undergraduates program.