In November, 2024 Dr Melissa Derby was appointed by the Governor General for a term of five years to the role of Race Relations Commissioner with the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. She retains an honorary lecturer position at the University of Waikato.

During her time at the University of Waikato, she was a Senior Lecturer teaching early literacy and human development at the University of Waikato's Tauranga campus and online. She completed her PhD at the University of Canterbury, and her study was part of A Better Start National Science Challenge. Her primary area of research was early literacy, using a human rights framework, and in particular, she explored the role of whānau in fostering foundational preliteracy skills. More generally, she has an interest in Māori education and success. Her scholarship has been recognised through a range of awards, including a Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Graduate Award, a SAGE Young Writer’s Award, a University of Waikato Early Career Research Award, and two research awards from the Royal Society of New Zealand.

She was the Director of the Early Years Research Centre at the University of Waikato, and co-Editor of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education's blog, Ipu Kererū. She was on the Editorial Board for the journal of the International Literacy Association, The Reading Teacher. In New Zealand, she sat on a number of advisory groups for education and literacy, including the cabinet-appointed Ministerial Advisory Group advising the Minister of Education. She was on the Board of Trustees at Matua School in Tauranga, New Zealand and the Board of Directors for Inspired Kindergartens in Tauranga, New Zealand.