Michelle Morales Capriotti (she, her, hers)
Michelle Morales Capriotti has been an Arizona public school educator and advocate since 1995 when she moved from California. She has taught in both the general and special education settings at the elementary and high school levels. She has raised four children who attended AZ public schools, two of whom are students with autism. Michelle has worked on numerous campaigns and is a passionate advocate for public school education and has done a great deal of work with Save our Schools Arizona. Michelle played a large part in the #RedforEd movement and went on to become the Vice President for the Chandler Education Association. Michelle recently completed a fellowship with the National Education Association (NEA) as a Global Learning Fellow. She is now a Ph.D. Fellow at Arizona State University with Project INCLUDE, working on her doctorate in Educational Policy and Evaluation with a focus on the inequities of special education at both the state and federal level. Michelle was also a fellow for Understood in New York, an organization that supports the one in five students, families, and educators in special education. Michelle sits on the community advisory board for ABC 15 and serves as a voice for topics related to education in Arizona. In her “spare” time Michelle coaches cheerleading for Special Olympics and recently launched a yoga program at Casteel High School to help students develop lifelong skills to manage stress and anxiety in response to what she saw as an educator and parent during the pandemic.