External Affairs has become the bridge between University interests and the greater governmental, arts, and business community and serves as a means to bring educational development and contact to non-traditional venues. Michele has been engaged in External Affairs since 1998 and prior to that was the educational outreach coordinator for ASC.

Recently she has participated in coordinating major events with the Andy Warhol Museum, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the Mattress Factory, and the Woodstreet Gallery.

In addition to external affairs, Michele is the project manager for two undergraduate curriculum projects:

• Contemporary Chinese Societies: Continuity and Change (developed by the China Studies faculty and published in 2000, Columbia University Press)
• Japan Module Project (to be released in summer 2008)

Her academic interests are in rites of passage and the use of ceremonial ritual in contemporary Chinese culture.