About the Commissioner

Dr Melissa McCullough was appointed as the Commissioner for Standards for Jersey in March 2023.

Melissa moved to Belfast from the United States in 1994 and obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast in 1997. She also holds a Master’s degree in Bioethics and Applied Ethics, a Bachelor of Laws degree, and an undergraduate degree in Biology.

She served as the Northern Ireland Assembly Commissioner for Standards from 2020 until the completion of her five year term in September 2025, and she currently acts as the Standards Commissioner for the legislatures of Jersey, Alderney and Sark. Melissa is an academic in law, ethics and professionalism, and was a ministerial appointed non executive director on the Health and Social Care Board in Northern Ireland from 2009 to 2020. She is also an ethics advisor to the BMJ.

Her published work and research interests include professionalism, applied ethics, equality and justice in policy and practice, ethics education and the ethics of artificial intelligence. She appears regularly on broadcast media as a specialist in these subjects.

Melissa is married with three grown children.