Michelle received her BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Dundee in 2005. During her undergraduate degree she spent an exchange year abroad at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. She also took several classes in computer science during the first two years of her degree. She completed an MSc in Psychological Research from the University of Sheffield in 2006. Her Master's thesis was in the area of social and health psychology and behaviour change. She then worked as a research assistant on a project at the University of Dundee where her main task was to conduct a meta-analysis on a combination of research in intergroup relations from social psychology and workplace diversity research from organisational psychology. After that she worked as a research assistant at the University of Stirling on a longitudinal study concerning lifestyle and coping among adolescents in Northern Ireland.