Michaela was born and raised in Oregon, and received her BS in Social Sciences and MED in Elementary Education at Portland State University. Michaela has taught at San Francisco Friends School in the lower elementary school, Circle of Life Preschool, at the Vermont Hills program (associated with the Portland Public Schools) and at the Emerson School, where she was the lead teacher of a Kindergarten/First grade classroom. Michaela completed the student teaching portion of her credential program in the fourth grades at Grout Elementary and Metropolitan Learning Center. She completed Slingerland training in multi-sensory language acquisition. Beyond her work with kids, Michaela is an avid outdoors woman and seasoned traveler. She loves surfing, hiking and biking, and credits her Oregon childhood with instilling a lifelong love of nature.