A little about michelle

Michelle Boston is a digital strategist and award-winning writer. She loves stories wherever they live — books, television, movies, newspaper articles. But when it comes to writing, she’s made nonfiction the centerpiece of her professional work. She gets a thrill from searching out the thread of a true story.

She has spent more than a decade writing for brands like the University of Southern California, Boston University and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

At USC Dornsife, Michelle manages the college’s website, helping to lead the team overseeing its redesign in 2023.

Previously, she managed the college’s social media presence, developing and posting engaging and relevant content designed to elevate awareness of the important work of USC Dornsife students, alumni, faculty and staff. She writes news and feature stories for the USC Dornsife website and alumni magazine, and works with faculty to bring their expertise to audiences through local, national and international media.

Michelle served as editor of Boston University School of Public Health’s news website, the BUSPH Insider. She has contributed to the Malibu Times newspaper, Under the Radar magazine and Beyond the Book, a K–12 educational leadership website produced by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Michelle earned a B.A. in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.A. in writing and publishing from Emerson College.

Michelle loves television, running, road trips and the San Fernando Valley. When she's not sitting at a computer or streaming her favorite T.V. series, she's exploring local trails or looking for the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants in strip malls in the valley.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

2019 National Arts and Journalism Award (Los Angeles Press Club) - Third prize in the Visual Arts/Architecture Feature Over 1,000 Words category
“A Final Farewell” - The article for USC Dornsife Magazine follows the last visit a Holocaust survivor makes to the concentration camp where his family perished. The story covers how the journey was captured by the USC Shoah Foundation as a virtual reality film for future generations to experience and learn from.

2019 National Arts and Journalism Award (Los Angeles Press Club) - Third prize in the Soft News category
“Pokémon Linguistics" - This article published in the USC Dornsife News covers a scientific study about the relationships between sounds and their meanings using Pokémon character names as a dataset.

2018 Southern California Journalism Award (Los Angeles Press Club) - Third prize in the Culture/Entertainment Magazine Feature over 1,000 Words category
"Hanging by a Thread" - Feature article examining the groundbreaking research of Nobel laureate Angus Deaton published in USC Dornsife Magazine.

2016 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award (Los Angeles Press Club) - First prize in the Celebrity Feature-Print Under 1,000 Words category for
“The Craftsman” - Profile of filmmaker and USC Dornsife alumnus Edoardo Ponti published in USC Dornsife Magazine. Judges noted that “Michelle Boston drew a wonderful portrait of the quiet Edoardo Ponti, son of Sophia Loren and the late Carlo Ponti, and his artistic journey that took him from poetry to film, which he approaches as a craft.”

2016 finalist for Journalist of the Year presented by the Los Angeles Press Club

2016 Gold CASE Awards of Excellence for News Writing and Periodical Staff Writing (team)

2015 Silver CASE Award of Excellence for Periodical Staff Writing (team)

2014 Silver CASE Award of Excellence for News Writing