Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Melissa Brown attended Keuka College and graduated with a B.S.
Brown obtained her MBA in Strategic Management from Saint Joseph's University's Haub School of Business in 1998.
She is an adjunct Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Medical Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1998, Brown ran in the Republican primary in Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district against incumbent U.S. Rep. Jon Fox, and came in third.
Running with the support of both the Montgomery County and Philadelphia GOP committees, she won the nomination with 56% of the vote.