Michelle completed her PhD on ‘The Art of Delivery: Sir Michael Barber and the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit 2001 to 2005’. The PhD is the first academic study of the PMDU with access to Barber’s unpublished diaries from the period.

Michelle is researcher in residence at No.10 Downing Street and a lecturer at King’s in the Strand Group co-teaching modules on ‘The History of the Prime Minister’, ‘The Blair Years’ and ‘The Treasury and an Introduction to Economic History’.

Michelle has worked at the British Academy as a policy adviser and at Queen Mary, University of London as strategic partnerships co-ordinator (Tech City) where she worked closely with government, academia, digital and creative industries to facilitate collaboration.

Michelle’s research focuses on British government and public service reform – how Prime Ministers and cabinet craft policy programmes and create effective mechanisms to deliver. ‘

Doctoral Research

Reforming Britain's Public Services: An Analysis of Sir Michael Barber's Tenure as Head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit 2001 – 2005

Research Interests

Public service reform, delivery units, history of the UK Prime Minister, Government and Whitehall since 1945 (including No.10 Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, Department for Education, Home Office, Department for Transport, Department of Health), the Blair government, public private partnerships, economic history, the use of oral history and the institutional memory of government departments.