Michelle Kolobutin is a mother, advocate and community connector born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Michelle has been working in the field of Mental Health and Addictions for 15 years. She completed her Masters of Science from the University of Waterloo and went on to work in the field of HIV Case Management and Street Outreach in Hamilton, Ontario, coordinating the Van Needle Exchange Program. She worked with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre to locate and educate the under and never screen population to screen for high risk cancers, working with urban, rural and remote communities in the Northwest to increase access to cancer screening.

For the past 5 years she has worked in Thunder Bay in the field of Equitable Food Access, Harm Reduction and Managed Alcohol with a special interest in supporting women involved in survival sex. She is passionate about health equity, increasing access to quality food and bringing in community members and people with lived experience to guide and participate in the work she does. She is looking forward to working with the Team DEK Board.