Michelle began her career as an industrial engineer at American Greetings Corporation in 1993, gaining experience in process development and product distribution. She joined Highlands in 1995 as the Quality Manager, responsible for quality system implementation. Utilizing her engineering background, she was given the responsibilities for process engineering in 1998. In 2012, Michelle became the Director of Quality. Michelle attended the University of Kentucky where she earned her B.S. in Electrical Engineering, she also received professional engineering certification from the state of Kentucky.