Michelle Girard graduated from Miami with her BS in Economics in 1987 and her MA in Economics the following year. She is currently employed at NatWest Markets. She is also a former Economics Advisory Board member.

• Has COVID affected your every day work life? If so, how? Have been working from home since last March. 
• What are some ways this new way of life has benefited the way you look at your daily work operations? Much more connected with global counterparts –Covid has been the great equalizer. Now EVERYONE in meeting is dialing into the meeting!
• Has doing more virtual meetings, etc, shown to be more beneficial to how you can be productive in your daily activities? In many way yes, but also now all conversations need to be structured.  If you want to have a quick discussion, can’t just walk over to someone, need to schedule a meeting. End up with a diary full of back to back meetings. By the end of the day, Zoom burn out has definitely set in.
• Once COVID has slowed down do you think this will affect your future way of continuing to do your work? Yes, we are completely rethinking how we work – how many days will people be in the office, what will they be doing while there, new floor design to serve our New Ways of Working
• Has having an Eco degree benefited you during this time? Of course!  Because we can solve problems associated with scare resources (which is what Covid has created)