Melanie Schmitz is a digital news editor at ABC News and “Good Morning America.”

She previously served as senior politics editor at ThinkProgress in Washington, D.C.; managing editor and executive editor at TAI News; and a news and politics editor with BDG Media (Bustle/Romper). Her work has been featured across several news and media outlets over the past 13 years.

In her work as a journalist, Melanie has reported on and edited a variety of issues, including the coronavirus pandemic and 2015 Zika virus outbreak, the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak and subsequent regional outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the war in Syria and other global conflicts, extremism and online misinformation campaigns, civil rights issues, the 2016 election and transition, the family separation crisis, immigration issues, and a broad array of national political news. She also reported extensively on the Russia investigation and Trump impeachments.

In 2015, she published a feature on Nicaragua’s evolving education initiatives, how government-led campaigns affected literacy and jobs, and the fallout from Iran-Contra. The project was the result of a week on the ground in places like Managua and San Juan del Sur. In 2018, she reported on the violent government crackdown on protesters across the country.

In 2019, she was invited to speak at the University of Utah law school about her past reporting on the FBI’s surveillance of Black activists.

Melanie also served as the editorial and marketing manager for the international nonprofit Random Acts from 2014 to 2017.

She has a background in Middle Eastern studies and journalism from Brigham Young University.