
Educator and Academic Librarian
As Associate Librarian and Director of Open Educational Resources at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Michelle leads efforts to support the adoption, modification, and creation of open educational resources (OER) and assists educators in developing learning opportunities that foster collaboration, increase engagement, and empower students as content creators. She oversees the Libraries’ OER Department, which manages OER publishing services for Mavs Open Press and the UTA CARES Grant Program.
Michelle is a presenter and curriculum designer for the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) OER and Affordability Roadshow. She serves as a member of the UT System Affordable Learning Accelerator Task Force, the Driving OER Sustainability for Student Success (DOERS3) Collaborative, and the Pressbooks Customer Advisory Board. A former fellow of the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program and the Open Education Group’s OER Research Fellowship Program, her research interests include the impact of open practices on learning and academic success, organizational change and perceptions of open principles, and librarianship at the intersections of information literacy and scholarly communication.
Prior to joining UTA, Michelle supported both information literacy and scholarly communication at the University of Kansas Libraries. She also worked as a technical writer and editor for a Department of Energy waste management center and a small research and manufacturing business specializing in neurophysiological research tools.
Highlights
Inclusion by Building Capacity
Recorded presentation at Open Education Global 2020 conference demonstrates how to build local capacity to increase use and creation of OER and how to increase inclusion in open education. More
Transforming the Student Experience
UTA invested $500,000 to fund OER led by UTA Libraries in 2019-20 academic year, the largest award by a public academic institution in the state of Texas specifically supporting OER initiatives. More
Publishing Reimagined
A YouTube playlist about the OER publishing program at UTA Libraries features interviews with stakeholders in the OER creation pipeline, including OER creators, librarians, and other partners. More
Digital Storytelling Project
A student-designed, interactive game introduces first-year students to library resources and services. It adopts a fun yet informative tone to lower library anxiety among incoming freshmen. More
EDUCATION
MS, Information Sciences
University of Tennessee, 2010
Research: academic libraries, leadership, and scholarly publishing
MA, English
McNeese State University, 2006
Research: trauma and humor in contemporary fiction and memoir
MFA, Creative Writing
McNeese State University, 2006
Thesis: What You Look Like Naked (short stories); Doré Writing Award
BA, Journalism & English
Louisiana Tech University, 2002
Summa cum laude; editor and reporter at The Tech Talk; News Bureau writer