Dr. Rebecca A. Melanson is an Associate Extension Professor with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. She has statewide plant pathology Extension responsibilities for vegetable, fruit, and nut crops, and focuses on developing educational programs and resources for stakeholders in those commodity groups. She has delivered over 100 presentations to stakeholder and scientist audiences, authored or coauthored over 70 state or regional Extension publications, developed and/or hosted several Extension programs, and published various other educational resources, such as videos, newsletter articles, and images, on plant diseases. Dr. Melanson also maintains several webpages on the MSU Extension website (extension.msstate.edu) and a Facebook page (@MSUextDiseasesVFP) that support her overall Extension program. Recent research and Extension projects include monitoring for downy mildew and surveying for whitefly-transmitted viruses in cucurbits, organizing and leading the Emerging Viruses in Cucurbits Working Group (EVCWG; ecucurbitviruses.org) to address the introduction and spread of viruses in cucurbits in the U.S., surveying for fungicide resistance development in Botrytis (gray mold) and Colletotrichum (anthracnose) in strawberry, and leading the development of the MyIPM for Vegetables (myipm.app/vegetables/) smartphone app.