Hansen, Melissa

As the Washington wine industry’s point person on grape and wine research for nearly 8 years, Melissa leads the Washington wine industry’s own competitive research grant program and the statewide research grant program at Washington State University. The industry’s overall research goal is to improve wine quality.

She is a board member of the National Grape Research Alliance and chair of the organization’s Integrated Production Systems Committee. She has also held leadership positions with the Northwest Center for Small Fruits Research, a consortium of industry and scientists in the Northwest, and currently is on the steering committee of the West Coast Smoke Exposure Task Force.

Before serving the Washington wine industry, she wrote grape and tree fruit articles for the Yakima-based Good Fruit Grower magazine for 20 years and spent 15 years involved in California’s table grape and tree fruit industries as research director for the California Table Grape Commission and in government affairs for what is now the California Fresh Fruit Association.

She received her bachelor’s of science degree in agricultural journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Melissa and her husband live on a ranch in Ellensburg, Washington, where they raise cattle and hay.