Michelle Wachsmann - PLF Advisory Committee Member
Michelle was born and raised in Santiago, Dominican Republic. She obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, where she was a member of the Law Review. Upon graduation, Michelle started her professional career as an attorney in private practice. After practicing for a couple of years, she moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue her Masters of Laws degree at the Georgetown University Law Center. After graduating from Georgetown, Michelle stayed in D.C. to intern at the Organization of the American States´ Department of Legal Cooperation and Department of International Law until a job opportunity she couldn’t refuse brought her back to her country of origin.
Back in the Dominican Republic, Michelle created and led the government affairs department of a large multinational company helping to expand its presence, elevate its voice in important decision-making forums and support local communities by developing and nurturing key partnerships and implementing creative engagement ideas. After working with an outstanding team for almost five years, Michelle moved back to the United States and continued supporting the company remotely.
Once in the States, Michelle also started a language services business, which she still runs to this day. The majority of her clients are local and national nonprofits who serve the Latine community. Born out of the love that Michelle has for healthy cooking, she also founded and successfully ran a cooking school for children, Kidalicious, that allowed her to engage with, educate and empower children from diverse communities.
Most recently, as Manager of Special Projects for Eversource Energy, Michelle collaborated with multidisciplinary teams across all service territories to create and implement outreach plans, including a strategy to meaningfully engage with environmental justice communities. She also served as Co-Director of the New Haven Family Stroll & Festival for High-Quality Early Childhood Education, a large event organized by Friends Center for Children, in which capacity she oversaw and managed all aspects of this event focused on raising awareness about high-quality early childhood education and raising funds for providers in New Haven.
Michelle is a fully bilingual (English/Spanish) and culturally sensitive professional who is passionate about social impact work. Her completion of Encore!Connecticut, a nationally-recognized corporate to nonprofit senior executive transition program of the University of Connecticut´s School of Public Policy, exemplifies her interest in the betterment and empowerment of our communities, especially the Latine communities. As part of Encore!Connecticut, Michelle supported LifeBridge, a nonprofit organization that provides a combination of behavioral health services, youth development and asset-building resources for families, to create a community relations plan that identified key stakeholders in Bridgeport and beyond, and established the mechanisms to build positive, sustainable, and mutually beneficial relationships. Additionally, throughout the years, she has volunteered her skills with several agencies to gain hands-on experience working with community projects and to advocate for important issues. She is the social action chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater New Haven as well as a wish granter for the Make-A-Wish Foundation Connecticut. Most recently, she became a member at large of Progreso Latino Fund´s Advisory Committee.
When she is not working or volunteering, Michelle loves to run, read and spend quality time with her two children, Camila and Daniel.
