Dr. Michelle Villegas-Gold is the Senior Director of Health Strategy within the Office of the Vice President of Research at ASU Knowledge Enterprise, and a Health Solutions Ambassador with the College of Health Solutions. As the lead for ASU Health in KE, Michelle oversees strategic planning and operations to advance health research and innovation. Prior to working in KE, Michelle was a University Innovation Fellow with the Office of the President at ASU, where she developed and incubated new university-wide initiatives that advance ASU's charter and design aspirations. Additionally, from 2015-2018 while pursuing her Ph.D., Michelle served as the Center-wide Research Assistant for the Center for the Future of Arizona, within the Office of the President Emeritus at ASU. Before joining ASU, Michelle worked as a masters' level counselor in several inpatient, intensive outpatient, and outpatient settings with children, adolescents, and adults. Michelle specializes in trauma- and stress-related, feeding and eating, anxiety, dissociative, and substance-related and addictive disorders, with specific expertise in the neurobiology of trauma, fear, and safety.
Michelle is also a Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher, who facilitates a free trauma-informed yoga group she developed specifically for victims and survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence at Trauma Healing Services with La Frontera/EMPACT-SPC, sponsored by an ongoing grant from the Victims of Crime Act (VoCA).
Michelle has a Ph.D. in Global Health from Arizona State University with a certificate in Women and Gender Studies, a Master of Public Health within the Global Health and Leadership track from New York University, and a Master of Counseling degree from Arizona State University. Michelle completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Arizona where she majored in Psychology and minored in French.