Michelle D. Jones is one of a handful of people who has founded a college from scratch. She has a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership and taught at multiple universities for almost two decades before starting her own college - Wayfinding Academy - in 2016. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Oregonian, University Times, and The Chronicle of Higher Education and has been interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning and Oregon Public Broadcasting's Think Out Loud.

She was one of the original TEDx organizers and license holders who joined the team when the series began in 2010. She attended and actively participated in TEDIndia, TEDxSummit, TEDActive, and TEDNext and she and her team won the TEDx Innovation Award for their Artist in Residence program and created workshops and manuals for other TEDx organizers. In 2019 she delivered a TEDx talk on "How to do college better" that has been viewed more than 98,000 times.

Michelle has founded multiple nonprofit and for profit businesses, including a small community-based organization dedicated to radical community gratitude for stuff that matters, SuperThank, and currently is the co-founder of both Smith & Jones Innovation and Sonder Collaborative. Her businesses produce high quality high impact complex events dedicated to solving issues of the common good and workshops with small group and one-on-one components that help people live purpose-driven lives, particularly during moments of life transition.

Michelle has dedicated her life to being a catalyst for courage and integrity. She lives in a tiny house in Portland, Oregon, spends several months a year traveling the world, and is moderately fluent in Spanish.