Michelle Merritt Profile

Michelle is a self-employed author and artist with a diverse business background. Following her passion for alternative energy solutions, she has recently accepted a contract as the development director with Horizon Biotechnology and is a consultant for the GTI Group on an electric vehicle project. Before publishing her first book, "One Night in Rome: And the end of life as I knew it," Michelle served as an operations director for the Tacoma Tall Ships Organization, managing volunteers, office operations, donations and fundraising from 2007-2008. Her prior career includes more than twenty years in automotive dealership management. When not writing and traveling, she paints and designs jewelry in her Tacoma studio. From 2002-2005, Michelle served as the fleet development chair for the Salt Lake Clean Cities Coalition with a focus on increasing available infrastructure to support non-petroleum fueled vehicles and is a current member of the Puget Sound Clean Cities Coalition. She has been an active member of Rotary International and hosted a group study exchange guest from India in 2006. From 2006 to 2009, Michelle served as the volunteer transportation chair for the Boeing Greater Seattle Golf Classic. While rediscovering her love of the arts, Michelle volunteered as the procurement committee chair for Tacoma Art Place and is a current board member.