Meet Author and Ecologist Michelle Schuman

Spend an evening with author, adventurer, and environmentalist Michelle Schuman as she shares her memoir, The Understory: A Female Environmentalist in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Schuman is a retired Ecologist specializing in wetland science and environmental policy with over four decades of experience in Alaska. The event will include time for audience Q&A and books will be available for sale and signing.

Michelle Schuman has worked in the private sector developing environmental impact statements and conducting field surveys from the northern tundra to the rainforest of southeast Alaska. As an Oil Spill Ecologist for the State of Alaska, her most notable and arduous accomplishment was acting as a first responder on the Exxon Oil Spill, analyzing one of the most devastating and long-term man-caused disasters in North American history. She recently retired as the Ecologist for the USDA after twenty-two years where she is well known for her expertise in wetland science and environmental policy.

She published her memoir, The Understory: A Female Environmentalist in the Land of The Midnight Sun in January 2022. She recently was awarded the First Place Journey Award at the Chanticleer International Awards for Overcoming Adversity and the 2023 Independent Press Distinguished Favorite in Environment. She has finished her second novel, an environmental thriller which she hopes will be released within 2024.