Michelle’s career has included private practice, public health, corporate, continuing education, consulting, writing and dental hygiene education. A graduate of the University of Nebraska, with a BS in Dental Hygiene, Michelle is currently a Master’s
of Dental Hygiene student at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She plans her research to be on the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of dental professionals on herbal medicine, a topic she lectures on nationally.
Michelle currently practices clinical dental hygiene weekly in a high-tech cosmetic dental practice, where she has worked with a cosmetic physician who performed various skin enhancing procedures. She has been a dental hygiene educator for over five years. Currently, Michelle is a part time faculty member with the Riverside Community College Dental Hygiene Department, teaching radiology and radiographic interpretation to both dental hygiene and dental assisting students. She also teaches advanced topics, nutrition, preventive dentistry and pharmacology to dental hygiene students. Michelle is an Assistant Professor with Loma Linda University, Department of Dental Hygiene, teaching nutrition, pharmacology and clinical dental hygiene. In the fall, Michelle will be part of a new BSDH-degree completion program at Loma Linda University, teaching research methodology, advanced clinical concepts and advanced topics in education.
As an active member of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association since her graduation, Michelle is a past president of the California and Nebraska Dental Hygienists’ Associations and has extensive leadership experience. She is also a past recipient of the Discus Dental/ADHA Distinguished Service Award (2006) and the John O. Butler Company/RDH Magazine, Healthy Gums Healthy Life Award of Distinction (2003). Currently, Michelle is the editor of the CDHA Journal.