He is also the Director of the federally-funded West Virginia Rural Health Research Center. Michael earned his PhD in Psychology from Northwestern University in 1986, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Methodology at the University of Chicago. He previously served on the faculty at the University of Iowa, and at Washington State University. His research interests focus on public health disparities, especially as they relate to coal mining in Appalachia. He has published over 85 peer reviewed articles and book chapters. Michael teaches the Health Policy course in the Master of Public Health program.