Ms. Melissa Walker is the Director of EMBARK Venture Studio, the NRC's innovation and transformation accelerator in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. EMBARK partners with NRC personnel across program and corporate offices to facilitate experimentation and prototyping, and to help remove barriers to promote foundational initiative implementation. Prior to this role, Melissa was the Chief, Integration and Transformation Division in the four-star-led Army Futures Command (AFC) headquarters. She led strategic design efforts in emerging technology talent for the future Army. Melissa's accomplishments in executive-level leadership roles include supervising multi-million-dollar programs and operations to deliver results on behalf of major U.S. military commands, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and other federal agencies. Melissa offers broad expertise in processes enabling policy determinations, and driving innovation to improve accountability, information-sharing, and efficient mission accomplishment. She attended the U.S. Air Force Senior Service College and has a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Air University, and a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Texas A&M University.