Melissa Wilkinson

Melissa Wilkinson has always been obsessed with stories, from fiction and from the people around her. She can be found at the cinema every weekend, has been co-hosting movie and TV review podcasts since 2018, and organizes games with her friends to guess the top box office scores or Oscar winners.

Melissa spent a decade in academic publishing, the official home of wayward English majors. She was a peer review administrator for a diverse portfolio of journals, everything from literary criticism to petroleum engineering. It was compelling but isolating, with no face-to-face contact with the client. When the opportunity arose for a career shift, she decided to jump industries and find someplace better suited to the extrovert she is. It’s not an act when she answers your phone call to Hightower with abundant pep, it’s a genuine delight in conversing with other people.

She comes from a large extended family and grew up helping her older cousins with the annual holiday party. Event-planning is her favorite part of working at Hightower. She's had strong feelings about invitations, centerpieces, and snack arrangements for years – now she just gets paid for it!

Melissa's favorite place in St. Louis is the Muny. She makes it to every show every summer, despite soaring temperatures or stormy weather, and her favorite memory is waiting through a rain delay for A Chorus Line. Strangers were sharing umbrellas, powering through a show that started late and ran past midnight, surrounded by the other die-hards who refused to give up and go home. It was the people around her who made that night a real singular sensation, and she seeks that personal connection in everything she does.