Michelle was born and raised in Louisiana and immersed in its culture of festivals, foods, and family. During and after high school, Michelle worked as a caretaker for children, and worked in the accounting and shipping departments in the chemical industry. Later, Michelle married and stayed home to raise her two children, one with a learning disability. During this time she volunteered and belonged to organizations to help those in need in her community.

Michelle always had a love of learning and aspiration to become an educator, so once her own children started school, she pursued a degree in elementary education, taking a detour to earn a cosmetology license and work in the beauty industry. After graduating from Southeastern Louisiana University, Michelle began her teaching career. Early on, she realized she needed to learn more about how to help her struggling students, so began working on her master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction as a Reading Specialist.

During her 25 year career, she has taught all subjects in grades 1-5 and has implemented special programs, courses, committees to ensure students’ needs were being met and they received the skills and knowledge to not only become life-long learners, but also to love learning. She has also served as a liaison between teachers and administrations, as a teacher coach and mentor teacher in under-performing schools. She continued volunteer work, most recently providing meals for the local homeless shelter. Before joining 50CAN, she worked as a consultant for the Louisiana Kids Matter Campaign to implement a high dosage tutoring grant awarded by Accelerate. Michelle has worked in a variety of industries with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences and looks forward to continuing to support them in achieving their goals.