Michelle Girard is an international development professional with over 20 years of experience designing and managing stabilization, community resilience and countering violent extremism programs in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Zimbabwe. 

She believes that addressing social harm caused by conflict and violence is a critical aspect of stabilization and conflict mitigation programming. She established Third i Paradigm to create an integrated approach to creating sustainable social change. 

Michelle holds a Masters of Science from George Mason University's School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution and completed Harvard University's Refugee Trauma program as well as Eastern Mennonite University's Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) I & II. She is certified in Lumos Transform's Resilience Toolkit and has 10 years of experience teaching somatic and mindfulness practices.