08/31/2026
Meet the Team: Melody!
We’re kicking off our Meet The Team series with Melody, our Retail & Admissions Manager!
Tell us a little about yourself!
I’m Melody and I am the Retail & Admissions Manager at the museum! I have a background in vocal music performance and a passion for making every guest feel welcome. Before relocating to NC, I worked for a nonprofit in Orlando, where I was the administrator for the nation’s largest community choir and I’ve been fortunate to perform all over the country, including events with the NFL and Walt Disney World. So, if you hear someone singing while visiting the museum, there’s a good chance it’s me! I’m also the proud wife of a Marine Corps MSgt and mom to a 13-year-old boy, who somehow became a teenager overnight. When I’m not working, you’ll find me cruising with Disney, exploring the mountains on a whitewater raft, reading a good book, or tackling our weekly jigsaw puzzle at home. I look forward to meeting you at the museum!
What do you love most about working at the museum?
Honestly, it’s the people! Everyone who walks through our doors has a story, and I love getting the chance to hear them. One minute I’m hearing a child yell, “WOW!” when they see the mule for the first time, and the next I’m watching one of our docents (many of whom are retired Marines) swap stories with active-duty Marines who are here for a PME or unit tour. They may be separated by a few decades, but that connection is immediate.
When I started here in February, the walls were bare and the galleries were still waiting to come to life. Now, the Museum is filled with visitors, conversations, laughter, and stories. I get to walk in to work each day and watch people make connections with history, with each other, and with the stories we’re here to preserve. I’d say I’m pretty lucky to get to have that honor!
What’s your favorite item in the museum store?
That’s a tough one because I have so many favorites! I had the unique opportunity to design the museum tore from the ground up, so there’s a little bit of me in everything we carry. Getting to hand-select merchandise and work directly with some amazing vendors to create items specifically for the museum has been one of the most fun parts of my job.
I’m especially proud of our custom pieces, like our Christmas ornament, challenge coin, clothing items, and our unique decals. It’s been so much fun to start with a rough sketch and an idea that may or may not make complete sense to anyone but me, work with our vendors to bring it to life, and then see the finished product actually sitting on the shelf. I definitely have a little internal ‘YES!’ moment every time a visitor loves an item and makes a purchase!
What’s one museum moment that will always stay with you?
One that will always stay with me was meeting a family whose father served at the Chosin Reservoir. My grandfather was also one of the “Frozen Chosin,” so there was an instant connection.
We started swapping stories about their father and my grandfather and suddenly two families who had never met were connected by this shared piece of history. The fact that we were having that conversation inside a museum where stories just like theirs are being preserved and brought to life every day was really one of those full-circle moments that reminds me that history isn’t just something behind glass. You never know who is going to walk through our doors, what story they’re going to share, or how their story might connect with your own.
