Michelle is a former Law Enforcement Officer, United Nations Advisor and Non-profit executive. She has a proven track record of working across the aisle. She has helped to set up and worked with Community/Police boards in North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, and Connecticut. As an advisor at the United Nations, she worked on Climate Science, Climate policy, and climate finance, and has worked with numerous non-profits, and founded the Peace Garden Project, a non-profit that grows food for families in need. She has also done conflict work in the Middle East. 

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As a Law Enforcement officer, Michelle worked with communities across the United States with the National Park Service until she began her studies at Yale School of the Environment and Yale Divinity School where she completed a Master of Environmental Science and a Master of Divinity. She also holds a Master of Arts Degree from Regent University, and her Doctorate from Emory University. 

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Michelle is an Elder in full connection in the United Methodist Church and was ordained in the New York Annual Conference. In 2018 Michelle returned to North Carolina to help care for her mother before she passed. Michelle's work in both public and private sectors and religious and non-religious communities has given her a unique perspective about engaging communities across lines of difference. Michelle believes our differences don't have to divide us but can bring us closer together. She is the proud daughter of Ruth Lewis (d.2020) and Clarence Lewis (They were married for 45 years before her mother's death). Her father spent his career in the Army before beginning a second career in the National Park Service. Michelle has one deceased sister, Ella Planter, and four living siblings Alton Tillett, Jr., Wanda Mohammed, Anjelica Lewis, and her twin brother Michael Lewis. Her twin brother received a Bronze Star for his service during the war in Iraq. 

Michelle loves North Carolina and is grateful that she can call the Outer Banks home. Michelle graduated from Manteo High School and completed her undergraduate degree at Elizabeth City State University, an HBCU located in North Eastern North Carolina. While a student at Elizabeth City State University, she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and was Miss ECSU her last year. 

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