Michelle serves as the Program Director of the Duke Pathologists’ Assistant Program. This role entails the organization and continuous review of curriculum, coordination of clinical clerkships, fiscal management, instruction and preceptor responsibilities, as well as the maintenance of accreditation standards. She also serves as a staff pathologists’ assistant in both surgical pathology and autopsy pathology laboratories. Michelle is a graduate of the Duke Pathologists’ Assistant Program (1999) and began her career at Duke as a staff pathologists’ assistant in the Surgical Pathology Laboratory following the completion of the program. After leaving Duke, she worked in community practices in Utah and Virginia, and also served as the senior pathologists’ assistant at Vanderbilt University, which included supervising both the adult and children’s hospital surgical pathology laboratories while also participating in the coordination of the resident education alongside the Surgical Pathology Director.
Education has been a central component of Michelle’s career. She has volunteered with the American Association of Pathologists’ Assistants, serving as the contributor for the Gross Photo Tutorial in the quarterly journal from 2007-2017. She is a secondary author for a grossing protocol in the published Grossing Guidelines through the AAPA, 2018. Michelle has mentored several technical colleagues throughout her career, assisting in their progression to pathologists’ assistant programs in multiple states. In 2022 Michelle received the Pamela Vollmer Teaching Award, which is awarded annually by the graduating class of the Duke Pathologists’ Assistant Program to honor the individual whose knowledge, teaching and professionalism has had the most positive impact on their training.