Michelle is a sociologist and lawyer completing a PhD in Law at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology. Her work explores citizenship, capacity and decision-making in the legal and administrative transition to adulthood of people with profound intellectual disabilities. She takes a critical, transdisciplinary and inclusive approach to understanding the governance of legal capacity and intellectual disability in a range of contexts, including healthcare, financial services, social services, education, income support, and the NDIS. She is a researcher, educator and advocate in disability law, policy, and practice, and has extensive socio-legal research experience, particularly in qualitative and inclusive methodology and methods.
 
Michelle brings lived experience in complex disability and health care as a parent, advocate, and supporter of her 23-year-old daughter Daelle, who has profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Her particular interests are complex health care, transition between child and adult services and systems, and decision-making capacity. Michelle serves as a consumer advocate on several Queensland and National projects and committees, including on the Consumer Advisory Group of Health Consumers Queensland, as a consumer member of the Adolescent and Young Adult Care Subnetwork of the Queensland Health Child and Youth Clinical Network, and as a consumer advisor for the national research networks: Child UnLTD and CP Achieve.