Since receiving the Hillary Viders Scholarship in 2002, Michelle completed her Masters in Marine Sciences at Stony Brook University in 2004; she then went on to complete her Ph.D. in Marine Science and Natural Resources Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2010. While completing her Ph.D., Michelle served as a co-instructor for the class, tropical field ecology, an advanced undergraduate course during which students developed individual projects that were carried out at the Virgin Islands Environmental Resource Station (VIERS) in St. John, USVI. As part of this teaching experience she helped students design underwater research experiments and assessments on reef fish ecology. Michelle has held positions as a Visiting Research Assistant Professor, in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and has a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. Currently she is an Ecologist and Science Coordinator with the Northeast Climate Science Center, located at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Michelle has coauthored over 20 scientific papers. A recent and notable publication that Michelle co-led and authored was Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services: Technical Input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment (NCA), which is a report released every four years to inform Congress and the President of recent advances in climate change impacts in the United States. Findings of this national expert workgroup were also featured in a special issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (November 2013). Michelle’s educational and research experiences have given her the opportunity to visit and dive in a range of marine systems including waters of the Caribbean and Tasmania. She looks forward to continuing to explore questions related to the sustainable management and conservation of marine resources and the impacts and responses to one of the greatest threats of our time, climate change.