Michele, who is a licensed veterinary technician, is the most experiened member of our support staff. She has been in the field of veterinary medicine for over 20 years! Michele was born in Alabama and raised in Georgia. She joined Northwest Animal Eye Specialists when she moved to the state of Washington in the beginning of 2002. She has been with the company a long time and is an invaluable member of our team. She possesses a wealth of information on eye diseases and is therefore a great resource to our clients and this practice. She seems to have a photographic memory of our clients and patients. Her special interests in the field of veterinary ophthalmology are surgery and the complicated eye cases.

Michele has many pets and they all have interesting stories. Gator is a black Labrador Retriever who is affected by the inherited condition oculoskeletal dysplasia. He was donated to the hospital and adopted by Michele. Because of this condition, he is a dwarf and was born blind. He has done amazingly well despite his blindness. Because he was born that way, he really does not know life any differently. As a complication of his eye problems, he went on the develop glaucoma in both eyes and now has bilateral prosthetic eyes. As a complication of his skeletal malformations, he needed bilateral hip surgery. We can help prevent conditions such as this by doing screening eye examinations on breeding dogs (CERF exams).

Zyah is also a black Labrador Retriever. She was originally in training to become a seeing eye dog but had to drop out of the program. She knows lots of tricks including how to play dead and even jump rope! Zyah tends to lead Gator around like a seeing eye dog. Nigel is a Siamese cat who was adopted from Mercer Island Orphans and Waifs (MEOW). He has ocular herpes. Tahoe is a Snowshoe x Siamese cross. Tahoe moved here with Michele from Georgia. Michele has a special place in her heart for blue-eyed  siamese mixes. Fitting this description are her cats Moonpie, Ducati, and Sputnik. Ducati and Sputnik are brothers.

Michele's favorite way to spend her time away from work is with her pets. She loves playing with the dogs and spending time outside. Her pets are her family.

Michele's favorite color is blue and her favorite food is pizza!