Ms McKay, owner of Mountain Resort Engineering, has lived in Whistler since 1995, been a registered professional engineer since 2002 and started her own practice in 2004. She graduated from the Faculty of Engineering (Civil) at McGill University as well as from the Faculty of Building Technology (Construction Economics) at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Before starting her own practice, Melissa worked as a Land Surveyor, Labourer, Construction Estimator, and Engineer in Training for the Department of Engineering at the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) as well as five years as a Construction Project Manager and two years as a Structural Engineer within the Whistler construction community. Melissa is a previous member of the RMOW Advisory Design Panel and a current member of the Board of Directors for the Whistler Development Corporation (WDC). The WDC was responsible for the development of the Whistler Athletes Village which was part of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. This $161M project, post-games, has been turned over to the community as over 200 units of affordable housing which are facilitated by the Whistler Housing Authority.

She has also volunteered her time within the community sitting on the site selection committee for the Whistler Waldorf School, as a high school math tutor and as a Girl Guide leader. When not at work, Melissa loves to be in the outdoors hiking, skiing and biking with friends and family.