Michelle assisted with a variety of research and monitoring projects and outreach efforts, including lobster research, salt marsh monitoring, and fish sampling in southern Maine rivers.
Michelle's primary research focus was to collect and maintain a long-term data series on icthyoplankton (larval fish) caught in the Webhannet River estuary since 2008. The larval fish project supplies robust data to help inform fisheries managers.
Before arriving at the reserve, Michelle had three years of undergraduate research experience, including fish sampling in the Saco River, plankton identification, and an independent project assessing reproductive steroid hormone concentrations in sharks caught off the coast of Florida.