A native of Switzerland, she has more than 15 years of experience in natural resource management, international development and conflict resolution. Prior to joining EWI, Michele worked at UNICEF covering post-crisis and transition countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East as well as environmental sustainability. In early 2012, as Acting Country Director in Libya, she managed all programmatic and operational aspects of establishing a new UNICEF country presence in Tripoli. She joined the United Nations from the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, MA, where she oversaw the organization’s Middle Eastern portfolio and worked on global multi-stakeholder consultations on environment and development issues. Michele has taught international environmental policy and negotiation theory & practice at Columbia University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Pratt Institute of Design. She started her career in the Rome bureaus of CBS News and The New York Times. She holds degrees from Brown University and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and speaks fluent German, Italian, French and English.