Michaeleen’s legal training, decades of work on Democratic political campaigns, and extensive government service in the House, the Senate, and Democratic Leadership in both bodies gives her a unique perspective on policymaking, communications, compromise, and strategy. Michaeleen served as Chief of Staff to US Senator Bernard Sanders from Vermont, for 5 years after serving for four months as his Legislative Director. Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor to the Bernie 2016 presidential campaign. Michaeleen was his principal advisor on all policy, political, communications, administrative and strategic initiatives and focused on economic equality and fairness, strong safety nets, democracy preservation, solutions for global warming and renewable energy, expanded care for our Veterans, and health care for all Americans. She has led the development of a full-scale media center that has set the standard for Congressional member use of social media and video to educate the American people. Senator Sanders’ social media communications reach over 25 million people each week and the large-scale, town-hall-style webcast productions of the office have reached as many as 1.7 million live viewers at one time.
She also served as legal counsel for a successful mayoral and a successful congressional campaign in Georgia before returning to Washington as Legislative Director for Congresswoman Denise Majette (GA-4) for two years, and then as Legislative Director for civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) for 8 years. During her time with Congressman Lewis, she worked on civil rights and voting rights legislation, and on health policy with a primary focus on the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, health disparities, kidney disease and community health centers.
Crowell is a graduate of Boston University with a BA in Political Science and received her J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1999. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband James and two children.