Before starting her own consultancy, Michelle Betz taught broadcast journalism at the university level for seven years. At the University of Central Florida she also launched and advised the award-winning student-run radio station WNSC (now WGKN).

Michelle has been based overseas for the past several years, first in Ghana and now in Cairo, Egypt. She is a registered speaker with the U.S. State Department's Africa Regional Services Speakers Bureau and sits on the advisory committee for the Knight International Journalism Fellowships.

Michelle continues her work with Radio Salus in Rwanda and is a permanent consultant for International Media Support, a Danish NGO. She also continues to train for a number of NGOs as well as U.S. Embassies in the region. She has trained in: Togo, Benin, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Mali, Rwanda, Uganda, Morocco and Algeria. Much of the work has dealt with health issues, election reporting and conflict and post-conflict reporting.

Michelle freelances when she can and has filed pieces for CBC Radio, the World Vision Report, National Geographic Traveller and recently completed a stint as the Africa correspondent for The Green Planet Monitor, a podcast on rabble.ca.

In 2006, Betz, together with a Ghanaian NGO, was awarded a health journalism grant to work with HIV+ women and Ghanaian journalists to produce radio diaries. UNESCO will be funding a similar project in the Great Lakes thanks to a proposal Michelle put together.

Michelle's professional experience includes segment producing for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the network television morning show. She also assisted with the coverage of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway and worked in the London bureau of Canadian Television (CTV).

Michelle has also conducted training for National Public Radio's Next Generation Radio Project, the Voice of America, the Center for Development Communication (United Nations Population Fund) and WORL Radio.

In 2002, Michelle was awarded the Excellence in Journalism Education Fellowship by RTNDF and in 2003 was awarded a Knight International Press Fellowship and spent four months working in Rwanda. Michelle was awarded a second Knight International Press Fellowship and spent five months in 2005 in Morocco training journalists in both Morocco and Algeria.

Betz specializes in the role of the media in international conflict and conflict resolution.

For more on where I am and what I'm doing check out my blog.