Michelle N. Ogborne

Personal Introduction

Born and raised in a small town in rural southern Indiana, Michelle was a strong willed child with a deep love of learning. This was transformed when a personal tragedy struck – a close friend committed suicide because he felt powerless to change his situation. The loss of her friend filled Michelle with sadness and a feeling that there were many things inherently unfair in the world. She felt that she needed to do something about it. As a result of this commitment, Michelle became a leader within her community at a young age, focusing her efforts on volunteer work and being a champion for those in her life who didn’t feel that they had a voice to make things better. This passion for helping others continued through high school and again when she pursued her Bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Fredonia. When she moved to Phoenix, Arizona she continued to be filled by a burning desire to empower people to change their circumstances. As a result, she began working in a Phoenix-area domestic violence shelter, working with women in desperate situations to help them achieve stability and self-sufficiency. Over her time at the shelter, Michelle ascended to become the shelter’s director and assumed a role as a broader advocate, working to build community awareness programs around domestic violence. It was during this time that Michelle recognized that the power to change things was found within the system of justice itself, which resulted in her attending Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University where she earned her law degree.