Hi! My name is Dr. Melanie Christopher. I’m an English language development facilitator for the Allentown School District in Pennsylvania, serving students and teachers districtwide, and I also serve as an online facilitator for PLS 3rd Learning. Before entering the education field, I worked as a legal secretary for various law firms in New Jersey, including the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and the Legal Management Department of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
After graduating from high school, I entered the workforce right away—college wasn’t initially part of my plan. However, that changed when I began taking evening classes, a life-altering decision that, after many late nights of studying, opened the door to my current role in education.
Within my first year of teaching, I enrolled at Wilkes University to pursue a master’s degree, which is when I was first introduced to PLS Classes and PLS 3rd Learning. I earned my degree through a partnership between Wilkes and PLS, and in May 2026 I completed my doctoral journey at Wilkes, earning an Ed.D. in Instructional Leadership and Technology in Education. The program included three required residency classes on campus, with the rest of my coursework completed online. I enjoyed the flexibility and connectedness of the online learning community and appreciated not having to commute to participate in class.
On a more personal note, one of my favorite hobbies is raising Monarch butterflies. I’ve been growing a butterfly garden for several years, and during Monarch season, I collect eggs from the milkweed plants and raise the caterpillars in a specially designed outdoor enclosure. Once they’ve completed their transformation, I release them into the wild. This process helps boost their survival rate from just 5% in nature to about 90–95%—a small but meaningful contribution to supporting a species whose numbers have drastically declined in recent years.
