She chose to pursue her purpose to become an elementary school teacher to touch the lives of students and community in a profound and impactful positive way.
PALO ALTO, CA, December 19, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Michelle Abrahamson Robell is a distinguished biographee of Marquis Who's Who. She was recently spotlighted in New York City's Times Square on a 22-story screen that is passed by an estimated 1.5 million people daily. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are chosen from among a pool of the most prominent professionals and are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Hailing from over 25 years of teaching, Michelle Robell, formerly Michelle Abrahamson, has found success and purpose as a first grade teacher of the Palo Alto Unified School District, teaching at Walter Hays Elementary School. She has simultaneously contributed to several math and science committees.
Prior to teaching in Palo Alto, she taught her first two years at Monta Loma Elementary School within the Mountain View Whisman School District. She served as a gifted and talented specialist. She also earned the first Spirit Award presented by the school's Site Council.
Prior to her career in education, Ms. Robell studied psychology at Kent State University, from which she earned a bachelor's degree summa cum laude. While at Kent State, she taught supplemental classes for an Introduction to Psychology course as an adjunct instructor her senior year. She earned the Frederick E. Davidson Psychology Award, the Superior Scholarship Award, the Alpha Lambda Delta Senior Award, as well as other awards.
Following this accomplishment, she went on the University of New Haven, earning a master's degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She moved to New York City to complete her master's degree with internships at Assessment Systems Incorporated and the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution within Teachers College/Columbia University. After completing the internships, she then drove from New York City to California without a job to start her networking and corporate career journey. Her corporate career started as a compensation analyst with Xerox Engineering Systems in San Jose, CA. This then led to an executive compensation consultant position with the global management consulting firm Hewitt Associates, later known as Hewitt Aon.
After many years as an executive compensation consultant and becoming a lightbulb leader for executive perquisites, she reflected on the nature of her work. She chose to pursue her purpose to become an elementary school teacher to touch the lives of students and community in a profound and impactful positive way. She is grateful for all the corporate and consulting skills she learned and is still applying them in and out of the classroom decades later.
After leaving the corporate field and returning to graduate school full time with the Benard School of Education at the University of the Pacific, Ms. Robell earned her teaching credential which then led her to the Mountain View Whisman School District for two years and then the Palo Alto Unified School District where she has been for over 25 years.
Simultaneous with her teaching career, she served as a volunteer with the Stanford Emergency Department from 2008 to 2020. Here she would provide comfort visits to patients and families. From 2008 to 2020 she also trained volunteers within the Stanford Emergency Department.
Among her most cherished accomplishments, Ms. Robell is proud of her courage to follow her goals and purpose. To her, success is a continuum and combination of quantitative measures and internal milestones along with resilience, having a positive yet realistic growth mindset, optimism, as well as listening more than talking. Success to her is not about "doing" but rather more about "being" and the internal compass toward seeing the good in people and in circumstances. She is grateful for all the mentors and people she has encountered all along her journey (professors, managers, principals, teachers, classroom parents, and the students themselves). She remains humble as she acknowledges the amazing contributions of all those around her.
Looking toward the future, Ms. Robell aspires to serve as a mentor on behalf of new teachers. She would also be open to speaking in general about life goals, the meaning of success, and resilience.
About Marquis Who's Who®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Marquis celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2023, and Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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