To broaden her experience in organizations, Mary Lou went to work for a life insurance company, Unum, headquartered in Portland, Maine. There she held positions as Human Resources Representative and Division Director. In 1986, she founded her own organizational consulting firm, Mary Lou Michael and Associates, Inc.

Over the past 24 years, Mary Lou has worked with a broad range of client organizations, from large corporations to small businesses, from schools and universities to government and non-profit agencies. Her work with leadership teams focuses on strategic planning, partnering across differences, and supporting change processes. Her passion in recent years has been coaching individuals toward more self-awareness, more competence in understanding system dynamics, and more clarity and power in their lives.

Mary Lou holds a B.A. in Psychology from Smith College (1968), an Ed.M. in Organization Behavior from Harvard University (1980), and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Human and Organization Development from Fielding Graduate Institute (1994, 1996).