Michael is a CPE supervisor at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he also works as a chaplain. He developed and established the first CPE program to be housed at an HBCU for Howard University School of Divinity. He also launched Uplift Care & Education, an ACPE-accredited online CPE program for people interested in chaplaincy, for people needing units in pursuit of board certification, and for congregational leaders. Michael has served as adjunct faculty for North Park and Samuel Dewitt Proctor theological seminaries and currently teaches courses on the Foundations and Practice of Chaplaincy at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Prior to his work in chaplaincy education, Michael was an Executive Pastor at Sweet Holy Church and an Associate Pastor at New Community Covenant Church. He is ordained with the Evangelical Covenant Church, board-certified for chaplaincy through the Association of Professional Chaplains, and certified as an educator through ACPE (Association of Clinical Pastoral Education).

With degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (BS, Psychology), Wheaton College (MA, Theology), and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (MDiv, PhD), Michael enjoys a wide-range of research interests that explore the experiences of Black people in healthcare contexts, transformative learning, formation for ministry, recovery from trauma, and the impact of hearing, holding, and sharing stories.

A father of two sons, Michael enjoys playing Uno and creating stories with his children and sampling new restaurants. He holds a black belt in Seido karate — a ten-year hobby that turned into an in depth practice. Although traveling and scheduling has recently paused his studies of the martial art, he misses it and looks forward to returning.