Michele

Michele has spent her career challenging the myth that learning should be neat, linear, and solitary.  A dedicated K-12 educator, former Teacher of the Year, administrator, and specialist in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) integration, Michele recognized early on that traditional education often rewards predictable, single-answer testing while leaving learners unprepared for the messy, unpredictable realities of life and work.  Expanding her impact, Michele served as a researcher and instructional coach with New Leaders, a national non-profit dedicated to developing high-performing school leaders and teacher leaders, helping them build equitable, high-trust learning communities.  

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Her journey led her to explore Donald Schön’s concept of the "swampy lowlands" of practice—the ill-defined, chaotic problems where real growth occurs. Michele recognized that to thrive in these moments, individuals don't just need technical data; they need transversal skills like emotional intelligence, adaptability, decision-making, ambiguity tolerance, and the courage to express their "best-loved selves" within a team. 

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As an educator, researcher, author, and book editor—Michele’s work investigates how people learn, construct meaning, think creatively, build identity, and navigate adversity. A cornerstone of her scholarly work was co-authoring "The Unfolding Transdisciplinary Intersection of Design Thinking, Emotional Intelligence, and Narrative Inquiry" alongside Jonathan Silk. Their combined research demonstrated how fusing design-based learning, reflective storytelling, and emotional intelligence creates a powerful engine for learning transversal skills at both the individual and team level.

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With a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M University and a post-graduate certificate in User Experience (UX) from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Michele was able to dive deeper into design-based  learning experiences that develop transversal skills. Continuing her time in higher education and expanding to technical leadership, Michele completed a post-doctoral position with the Master of Engineering Technical Management (METM) program at Texas A&M University. During her time with the METM program, she led initiatives to secure high-quality national curriculum certifications and endorsements (including recognition from the Online Learning Consortium). Driven by the reality that technical expertise alone does not make a great leader, Michele helped to develop a targeted coaching program designed to cultivate emotional intelligence (EQ) in engineers and technical professionals. Her research centered on designing transformative learning experiences that build the crucial soft skills, relational intelligence, and collaborative mindsets required to lead in complex engineering environments. 

 

Michele is excited to bridge her academic background, personal experience and research interests to the work she does with Bridge 3 Mission Ready Learning Lab and Thriving Teams.  At Bridge 3, her work leverages Design-Based Learning (DBL) frameworks—using low-tech hand-to-mind tools like LEGO® and high-tech flight simulations like drones and RC tactical challenges—to help multidisciplinary squads practice how to think, adapt, and succeed together. Through the Thriving Teams Institute, she translates teaming insights into actionable learning experiences that develop the transversal skills needed to cultivate psychological safety, shared ownership, and collective intelligence.

 

In her learning approach, a failed prototype or crashed drone is never a setback; it is a vital data point for building resilience, adjusting strategy, and succeeding together.  It is what you do in the moments of failure and misunderstanding that determines if you are on the path to creating a secure learning environment where learners thrive or an insecure and toxic environment where learners are forced into survival mode.  Our work helps put you on the path to thriving not surviving.