Meet Michelle

About Me

Everyone's got a backstory, right? Scroll down to read mine.

First, some guiding principles:

Language is More than Words

Too often people forget that language is more than just words strung in a row—it’s a bridge to personal and professional identity. By embracing the nuances of communication, we reclaim our space as individuals to express our authentic selves confidently and effectively.

Diversity Enriches Communication

I believe every voice carries unique cultural, professional, and personal experiences. Effective communication isn’t about conformity—it’s about cultivating mutual understanding and leveraging the richness of diverse perspectives.

Learning is a Collective Journey

I reject the traditional idea that learning is a one-sided, top-down activity. True growth happens in a collaborative, collective process. Each moment is a new opportunity to create space for meaningful dialogue and industry professionals have a responsibility to share the space, not gatekeep it.

HI THERE, I'M MICHELLE

Founder of WeCultivate & Host of WeCultivate: The Pod

The idea behind WeCultivate was simple. I wanted to find a way to bridge the gaps between language as we know it "in the classroom" and language "in real life."

If you would have told me even a decade ago that I would be doing this today, I would have laughed you off. Although I taught my first ESL class back in 2006, I truthfully never expected to turn my work inside of languages into a more than full-time entrepreneurial journey.

I could write a long story about how my years of experience, education, and degrees qualify me to be here. But that's only one piece of the picture. It's also not how I see the field, nor the impact of my work at-large. See, most language professionals aren't interested in the topics I raise here. They enjoy pretending that we all still live in the 17th century, in separate corners of the world. They believe language should be governed and instructed via stereotypes, cliches, and authoritarian dogma. But ready or not, our world has already changed dramatically. And with it, the language and communication needs of those who live and work every single day. With all the technological advances of the last decade, we're now seeing this unfold exponentially, and in real life.

Let me walk you through a little of who I am, and what inspires me to do what I do now.

MY STORY

Languages have always been at the center of my world. Even when I didn't know it.

As an Asian American woman, I grew up in between two completely different cultures, mindsets, and languages. I didn’t just speak two languages—I lived them, switching between roles as the unofficial translator, cultural bridge, and “make this English make more sense" entity. My first unofficially official task? Cold-calling a doctor's office to help my grandmother schedule an appointment. I was six years old.

Back then, I didn’t think about the deeper connection between language, culture, and identity—it was just my reality. And those experiences shaped an intrinsic understanding that communication goes far beyond grammar; it’s about navigating emotions, intentions, and relationships.

Fast-forward through a few decades, career changes, and moves around the world, and WeCultivate is where it all comes together. It’s built from an ever-unfolding lifetime of experiences, dedicated to helping others find their voice and thrive in every conversation.

MY TRAINING APPROACH

How I work is deeply rooted in WeCultivate's core values and philosophy.

I possess a rare blend of business insight, technical expertise, and lived experience, leveraging all my skills and abilities to empower clients to overcome communication barriers and embrace their own voice in a language they weren't born into. I blend big picture goals with the details of each individual’s life. Most people using English in their daily work don’t need more textbook exercises—they need solutions that meet their unique needs. That’s where I come in, guiding and collaborating to create a path as distinctive as the person walking it.

Here’s the key difference: I’m not a “teacher,” and my clients aren’t “students.” At this stage, learning is not a passive process—it’s collaborative. The sooner someone steps into the driver’s seat of their own learning, the faster and more deeply they grow.

NOTE: Due to the immense workload expanding the media side of WeCultivate (have you created and produced a podcast? It's a ton of work.), I will not be accepting new clients until further notice. Interested parties are welcome to contact me to see where things are, and in the meantime I encourage you to listen to Trainer POV episodes to get a sense of how I work.

MY LARGER VISION

I envision a future where we reclaim the "human" aspects of communication. Aspects that technology and AI alone cannot fill.

Just as most jobs require a mix of technical and soft skills, effective language education and communication training demands a multi-modal approach that prioritizes real-world relevance over textbook accuracy.

Traditional, top-down methods are outdated and fail to address the unique challenges adult learners face daily. Language and communication are shaped by social environments, not textbooks. Yet, the industry has long prioritized "teaching by the book" over meeting today’s diverse and complex needs. Experts have confused their siloed resumes with real-world impact. Self-ordained authority with the complex process of collaboration, mentorship, and adaptability.

I believe I am good at what I do, but I do not think that this is work that can be done alone. It's why I do not push the "ultimate expert" marketing scam; a person's training needs to come from a diversity of sources. In the meantime, I hope to see more professionals integrating their respective knowledge of different fields, sharing new perspectives, and creating solutions that recognize the individuality of every learner. Remember: no one-size-fits-all approach will ever truly fit us all.

Career Highlights

I am living proof that the more diverse your training, the more transverse your skill-set. This philosophy also shapes my training work. I am here to dispell the myth that those who change their careers do so simply out of boredom or insufficiency. Career shifting has given me the confidence to make big life moves; pulling from my ever-growing, ever-evolving repository of knowledge and skills and applying them to each new challenge with renewed efficiency.

Each shift made me grow.
Again and again and again.
I now continue this journey with all of you.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

My entire CV is absolutely too long to list here. However, some former part- or full-time positions have included:

Senior Executive Policy Implementation Specialist (U.S. Federal Government)
User Experience (UX) & Digital Product Designer (freelance & startups)
Research Assistant (Psychology and Neuroscience labs, including a state-operated psychiatric research center)
President, Diversity & Inclusion ERG (Interagency Cooperative)
Chair, Finance Board (University)
Language Specialist/Translator (local community organizations)
Instructor & Coach (Language, Arts, Sports)

FORMAL EDUCATION & DEGREES:

TEFL/TQUK Level 5 (CELTA) Certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (RQF)

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Biopsychology

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Dance

Master of Science (M.S.) in Neuropharmacology & Physiology

Ph.D. Candidate (Ph.D (c)), Synaptic Neurobiology*

* Note: while not a formal degree, it is common practice for those who trained inside of the U.S. academic system and voluntarily chose to early terminate their PhDs to write this designation on non-academic resumes. It indicates successful completion of all pre-defense qualifications and is used to indicate that you demonstrated proper mastery of the foundational subject and demonstrated adequate rigor, aptitude, and candidacy for your thesis project. This has become important for those (such as myself) who chose to early terminate for personal reasons to make clear that leaving a PhD was a choice. NOT because of inadequacy. I suppose you could consider it a form of voluntary and honorable discharge of sorts.
SUPPLEMENTAL INFO:

I also trained at a top U.S. facility as an Olympic-bound gymnast for the first fifteen years of my life. While not directly related to the work I do here, my life as a gymnast has played a significant role and has influenced me as a human in many ways. I encourage anyone and everyone to watch a few of the latest documentaries (available on Netflix) to learn a bit about just a few of the atrocities and destructive culture that has been USA Gymnastics over the past half-century.

About the Podcast

In full transparency, I created WeCultivate: The Pod out of pure frustration. I knew people were having conversations like these in the real world, but I wasn't seeing it represented online. So I created this space to address that. The pod launched in Winter 2024-2025, and my hope is that this project will eventually grow into a larger global, interconnected community.

I hope you'll be a part of this as well.

Listen Now

Get In Touch

For media and press inquiries, guest pitches and more, please get in touch with me and my team via the form below. All guest slots for 2026 release are full but we'd love to have a conversation anytime to discuss fit.