Michele is the P.I. of The Poverty and Learning Lab at Dartmouth College; her research focuses on 1) identifying cognitive processes that underlie the income achievement gap and 2) creating efficacious research-based interventions for low-income students. Her prior training and experience as a public school teacher in a low-income school district, provides unique insight enabling her to readily collaborate with schools and teachers, a critical aspect of the current SEPA project. Her work on rural poverty has received national press, and she has been honored by the National Rural Education Association and named an Emerging Leader for the Phi Delta Kappa International Association of Education. She proudly serves on the Board of Advisors for the Children’s Literacy Foundation, an organization that provides interventions to low-income communities, and on the Board of Trustee’s for the Montshire Museum of Science. She has conducted numerous research projects with low-income schools, secured internal and external funding, and received national accolades for her many accomplishments.