Michelle (she/her) is a Senior Software Engineer with 11 years of experience. She started in engineering support and now leads large-scale development projects. A Philadelphia native that currently calls Los Angeles home, she is an art school graduate and a self-taught engineer. During her career, she has enjoyed creating software to help others succeed, from artists to restaurateurs to fellow engineers. She uses her experience to advise entrepreneurs on topics from technical to team building. Michelle shares her engineering travails and passion for DEI through speaking at over 30 conferences, being a guest on multiple podcasts, and publishing in STMPE, 97 Things Every Cloud Engineer Should Know, and online at LeadDev and OpenSource, with the hope others can learn from her challenges