Melissa Valentine is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in the Management Science and Engineering Department, and co-director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization (WTO). WTO is a world leader in producing field research (i.e., research that uses actual observation of social phenomena) to develop new understanding about the changing nature of work.

Prof Valentine's research focus is on understanding work groups and teams in organizations, particularly how they are changing in response to new industry trends and new technologies. She conducts in-depth observational studies to develop new understanding about new forms of work groups and teams. Her work makes contributions to understanding classic and longstanding challenges in designing groups and organizations (e.g., the role of hierarchy, how to implement change, team stability vs. flexibility) but also brings in deep knowledge of how the rise of information technology has made possible new and different team and organizational forms. Her research agenda is organized around two main themes: 1) temporary teams and organizations and 2) groups and teams in complex work organizations.

Prof. Valentine has won awards for both research and teaching. With her collaborators, she won a Best Paper Award at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the Outstanding Paper with Practical Implications award from the Organizational Behavior division of the Academy of Management. In 2013, she won the Organization Science/INFORMS dissertation proposal competition and received her PhD from Harvard University.