Melissa Colangelo joined Children’s Law Center in 2011 as Staff Appellate Counsel. She graduated cum laude from the George Washington University Law School in 2008, worked as a litigation associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP, and then clerked for two years for the Honorable John R. Fisher of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. During law school, Melissa interned with the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section at the Department of Justice and worked at the ABA Center on Children and the Law. Melissa was also a Finalist in the 2007 Gabrielli National Family Law Moot Court Competition and a Champion of the 2008 George Washington Van Vleck Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition. Prior to law school, Melissa spent three years teaching History to ninth and tenth graders. In 2002, she graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a BA in Sociology and International Relations.