About the Author
Melina grew up in New York City, but always yearned to be a cowboy in Montana. She finally got the opportunity when she managed a ranch in one of the state’s mountain ghost towns. Years later, after working at the Legal Aid Society in New York and then starting law school, she returned to Montana to research juvenile justice issues for the ACLU of Montana. With support from several tribal communities and Social Change, she was able to put together several articles documenting the intersection of school discipline, juvenile justice involvement, and self-harm among school aged youth on reservations. She is currently living in Nashville, where she is learning Bluegrass banjo and working as a clerk for the Honorable John T. Nixon at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Publication in RLSC
The School-to-Prison Pipeline Tragedy on Montana’s American Indian Reservations, 37 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 671 (2013).
N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change 