Meet Michelle

More than three decades in medicine. A new commitment to the next generation.

Michelle has built her career in primary care and clinical dermatology, caring for patients and collaborating with healthcare teams. Her years in practice have given her a deep appreciation for the rewards of medicine, the challenges clinicians face, and the human skills that help sustain a meaningful career.

Over those years, she came to recognize something that clinical education doesn't always address: learning the medicine is only part of learning how to be a clinician.

What practice taught her

Becoming a confident, capable clinician involves more than developing medical knowledge and technical skills. It also requires learning how to navigate uncertainty, recover from mistakes, communicate through difficult situations, ask for help, and maintain a sense of meaning in demanding work.

These challenges don't disappear with experience. They evolve.

Michelle believes these essential human skills deserve to be taught with the same intention we bring to clinical education.

That belief has become the foundation of her work today.

Bringing science to the human side of healthcare

Building on her clinical experience, Michelle pursued advanced training in applied positive psychology through The Flourishing Center and leadership education in health and well-being through Duke University.

This education provided a research-informed foundation for understanding how people develop confidence, cultivate meaningful relationships, engage with their work, and sustain personal and professional growth.

Today, Michelle translates that science into practical education for the realities of healthcare.

Through speaking, interactive workshops, and mentorship, she partners with healthcare education programs and organizations to help clinicians develop the skills that support a successful transition into practice and a meaningful career.

Why the early years matter

The transition from student to practicing clinician is about more than acquiring experience. It is also a time of professional identity formation, when clinicians begin defining who they are, how they respond to challenges, and what kind of professional they want to become.

Michelle is particularly passionate about supporting clinicians during these formative years, when intentional mentorship and practical psychological skills can make a lasting difference.

Her work is also grounded in an important understanding: clinician well-being is not solely an individual responsibility. Organizational culture, leadership, workload, and psychological safety matter. Individual skills and healthy systems must work together.

Staying Human in Healthcare and REVAMP™

Michelle is the author of Staying Human in Healthcare, a practical guide to the human skills that clinical training too often leaves untaught.

The book introduces REVAMP™, her framework informed by the science of positive psychology and shaped by decades of experience in medicine.

Through six interconnected domains, REVAMP™ helps clinicians reflect on and strengthen the personal and professional skills that support meaningful, sustainable careers.

At the heart of Michelle's work is a simple belief:

We can prepare clinicians not only to practice good medicine, but to build careers in which they can continue to grow, contribute, and find meaning.