Melissa Tullio

Melissa Tullio works for the Ontario Public Service (OPS) and has a strong background in public affairs and communications. She has worked for four ministries - Community and Social Services; Research and Innovation; Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; and currently, Municipal Affairs and Housing. Prior to the OPS, Melissa worked at the Region of Peel as a Communications Coordinator.

 

Starting off her career as an intern, Melissa was asked to research best practices in social media use and to create guidelines for the ministry. In her ongoing research, she discovered good examples of democratic governments using more open, two-way communication methods that better engaged public audiences. She used this knowledge to create a strategic framework for the use of Web 2.0 tools in government.

 

An active member on OPSpedia, the OPS’s internal social networking tool, Melissa reached out to a group organizing the first ever TEDxOPS event. She was asked to lead the communications strategy and tactics for the event, creating a Twitter account and live-tweeting on the event day.  

 

From these experiences, Melissa believes more than ever that the future of government communications lies in engaging citizens using new technologies and online tools. Her main goal in her career is an idealistic one - to introduce innovative thinking into every role she takes on, and to improve the way things are done.