Throughout her career, Melinda has been committed to language acquisition. She majored in Germanic Studies and received her teaching certificate from Indiana University, Bloomington. Over the years, Melinda has taught high school German, instructed German college students and business professionals, been involved with German exchange programs, as well as lived in Cologne, Hamburg, and Mannheim.

In addition, Melinda has worked for over 20 years in the area of English Language Learning, both teaching adults and publishing ELL educational materials. Since 2008 Melinda's own children have been attending the German Language School Naperville, and since 2016 she has enjoyed teaching the "Children age 3 and 4" and "Children, 6 year old" classes.