Biography

---

Michele Erwin was born in Long Island, New York in 1974. She was raised in New York and has a twin sister and younger brother. After high school she followed her passion in fashion and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She has worked for notable fashion houses, such as Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, and Ralph Lauren. She currently works for the corporate offices of JCPenney in Plano, Texas as a sourcing business manager. Michele is married and has two kids with her husband. Her journey into the disability rights movement began with her son Greyson, who was born in 2007 with a neuro muscular illness called spinal muscular atrophy. Sometime in 2011, Michele and her family were traveling by plane and that was when she began to see her own struggles as well as the struggles that others with electric wheelchairs face when traveling on airplanes. That same year she founded All Wheels Up, an advocacy and research organization that advocates for wheelchair accessible air travel and crash tests wheelchairs for commercial flight. In 2014, Michele and her family moved down to Frisco, Texas. She has continued to work full-time at JCPenney and runs All Wheels Up from her home and through their website as the founder and president. She hopes to continue the current advocacy and research roles of the organization while also branching out towards humanitarian work.