Michelle's Biography

Once upon a time a little girl was born in Syosset and was promptly relocated to Bethpage. Although confusing to grow up where she did in Bethpage because her address was written as Plainview and letters needing to be picked up went to Old Bethpage. An adventurous child, she enjoyed climbing to the tops of 50 foot pine trees to enjoy the blowing winds (even once falling from almost 15 feet and catching herself in some tree limbs before she hit the ground did not stop her!), cracking rocks to see what was inside, making wonderful mud pies (occasionally making forays into using Betty Crocker), flying kites, dancing, refusing to ride the bus to school so she could ride her bike and playing kickball with the neighbors.

Michelle became a lover of aviation (basically she caught the 'bug') around the age of 12 when her uncle took her for a ride in his crop dusting helicopter on the east end of Long Island (yes, Long Island still has farms!) She was hooked and dreamed of nothing but becoming a corporate aviation pilot. Living in Bethpage and attending high school there allowed her to see Grumman F-14s, A-6s, Hawkeyes and sometimes heavily guarded deliveries on flat bed trucks. Bethpage was the home of Grumman's headquarters and they had their own airport.

After high school and recovering from severely breaking her leg, Michelle attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida and began studying for her aviation career. While at ERAU she was involved in the flight team, the 99s, wrote for the school newspaper and worked part time. A couple of years later and after finding out she had a minor medical condition that disqualified her from becoming a professional pilot (big bummer!!) Michelle transfered to Dowling College in Oakdale, New York to continue her studies in aviation and management. While at Dowling, she was involved in the Aero Club, ALPHA Club (raising awareness for physically challenged students), writing for the school newspaper, starting a student chapter of the American Assocation of Airport Executives, Alpha Chi honor society and Phi Sigma Iota honor society. She worked as an aviation management intern in the Aviation Planning division of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey stationed at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports. Michelle was bestowed with the Student of the Year Award before graduating the next semester with highest honors.

Upon graduating from Dowling, Michelle went to work as a dispatcher for MillionAir, a fixed based operator servicing aircraft, at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, Long Island. The following year she was hired by the operator of Republic Airport in operations assisting in running the airport and becoming qualified in aircraft rescue and fire fighting. While at Republic, Michelle was afforded the opportunity to fly many different types of aircraft including aerobatics in a Super Decathlon, an open cockpit Stearman, a twin engine Cessna 421 Golden Eagle and her most memorable flight in the Blockbuster airship! She was promoted to supervisor after 2 1/2 years, then to Noise Abatement Officer before leaving in October 1998 for Balfour Computer Systems as the program developer for their 3 dimensional and 4 dimensional aviation and transportation simulation software.