As a teacher for over 24 years, Michelle brings a collaborative, caring, solutions-based leadership style to serving her community. She is a mother of three adult children and has been married to her husband James for over 30 years. They bought their first home in La Mirada, a homecoming to the city where she spent much of her childhood with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. As a granddaughter of a Korean War veteran and daughter of a former Los Angeles County Sheriff deputy, she proudly believes in duty and service to others.

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Michelle is a problem solver who believes in bringing all voices to the table to uphold the La Mirada values of integrity, teamwork, service, openness, diversity, and unity. As a Latina, Michelle is committed to amplifying the woman’s voice and the voice of those not represented in every space. Her focus is to uphold the City of La Mirada's fiscal stability and to position us for economic growth. Her perspective aims for balanced and open-minded decision making that upholds La Mirada’s family values, supports public safety, and provides high-quality recreational and community programming, as are the interests of the hardworking families of La Mirada. She has a proven track record of uniting people and services. Michelle seeks to build relationships to continue the positive collaboration between school districts, county parks and services, and city government to maintaining the small-town feel for hardworking residents of La Mirada. 

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Michelle graduated from Calvary Chapel High School, Downey, completed her Bachelor's degree from the Whittier Scholars Program at Whittier College, received her Master's degree in English from Cal State University, Fullerton, obtained a teaching credential from Cal State University, Long Beach, and currently teaches English at Rio Hondo College.