Hello! I am Michelle.

I am a certified teacher with a degree in Speech Communications. I attended Baylor University and Texas A&M. My career has brought me to be a teacher, speaker and author.

I am a consultant with the Highlands Company. Our software is based on the science of Johnson O’Connor which has been around since 1922. I use the Clifton Strengths assessment and have found it is a perfect compliment to the Highlands Ability Battery. The clarity and language Clifton Strengths brings to individuals and groups is invaluable.

I have worked with high school and college age people for decades. I have had concentrated time in Young Life and the Classical Christian movement. The last decade I have gotten to work with a wide variety of people of all stages of life and cultures through a non-profit I founded named PONDER. It was during these last ten years that I have seen the power that comes from self knowledge and the language that goes with it.

My philosophy

People fascinate me. The fact that all of us are completely individual and unique amazes me.

All people have something to add, something to give, something to do that no-one else can. I tend to use the phrase - what people “bring to the table”. This proverbial “table” represents a place. A place where one can pull up a chair and contribute. Life is full of “tables”. We have tables at work, at school, in churches, in organizations, in families and so many other places.

When you know who you are you can pull up a seat. When you know how to tell people who you are, you can enter into the conversation at the table. There you see others strengths and how yours work along side theirs.

My job is to get you to the table. With self-knowledge and the language to communicate it, you can join in the many conversations that will happen along the way.

So let’s start a conversation. A discussion about the importance of knowing your strengths. As we talk I hope to discover ways we can hold more of these conversations in schools and in families. Because everyone should know what they “bring to the table”.