Melissa Kershes, Technical Consultant, brings clarity and confidence to complex DITA workflows

Melissa has worked in the content industry since 1998, gaining experience in technical writing, information architecture, structured content, and DITA. As a seasoned Technical Consultant, she is passionate about problem solving and teaching others the benefits of — and how to use — DITA. As an experienced writer herself, she understands the challenges your technical writing team may be facing, and how to guide them to success. 

In her role, Melissa specializes in creating information architecture (IA), metadata, and taxonomies, configuring component content management systems (CCMS), and developing content strategies. With a mind for optimizing processes, she leverages her experience to help your content stakeholders: 

• Organize and structure content 
• Create and specialize document type definitions
• Convert content from other sources to XML 
• Import content into an authoring environment
• Transform content into consumable information for your audience

Melissa’s goal is to guide your content stakeholders to a place where they feel comfortable and confident asking questions. By blending approachable explanations and technical expertise, she transforms complex technical workflows and concepts into clear and down-to-earth processes. As a life-long learner, she loves how her role allows her to learn something new every single day.

Outside of her work at Scriptorium, Melissa loves coffee and creative and colorful crafts, particularly scrapbooking, rubber stamping, and making greeting cards. She’s an avid reader and audiobook listener, reading through several books a week between audio and screen. She has six nieces and three great-nieces for whom she strives to maintain “favorite aunt” status.

Melissa holds a BA in Mathematics from Holy Family University. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the United States.

Read the content Melissa’s authored on the Scriptorium site.