Melissa Harshman received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin- Madison in 1992. She has taught in the Printmaking and Book Arts area at the Lamar Dodd School of Art since 1993. Harshman has exhibited widely throughout the United States and abroad. Recent exhibitions include Madison Mafia at Georgia State University, a solo exhibition at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy, as well as at Swoope Editions in Maitland, Florida. Harshman completed an artist residency at the Penland School of Crafts in January of 2017. She was honored with the Dedicato a Cortona Award in April of 2017 from the University of Georgia as well as a Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Research Fellowship, which allowed her to return to Penland in January of 2018.