Michelle DeFossett

Michelle De Fossett is a nonprofit and Wall Street veteran who’s committed to building socialchange infrastructure. Michelle is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Girls Who Invest, where she partners with the CEO to grow the organization and its impact. She supervises their IT, HR, and Finance teams, contributes to their overall revenue model, and drives collaboration with board members and external partners. Michelle was previously Vice President of Finance, Human Resources, and Administrationat Sponsors for Educational Opportunity.

She has also been the senior finance professional for the Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester and the Maple Street School. Michelle has led long-term fiscal planning and growth for organizations with annual budgets of up to $30 million, and overseen HR and IT needs for entities with up to 110 professionals. She has also managed various aspects of domestic and international real-estate transactions.

Prior to her career in the nonprofit sector, Michelle spent over 20 years in financial services. She began her career with a five-year stint at Chase, where she held roles of increasing responsibility within the Global Derivatives, Eurocurrency, and Latin American Debt divisions. Michelle later moved into the asset-management sector, working at J.P.Morgan Asset Management and Pareto Partners. In these roles, Michelle led teams responsible for new-product development and distribution, business development, and process re-engineering initiatives for domestic and international products and markets.

Michelle holds an BA in Economics from Vassar College and an MBA from Columbia Business School, where she was awarded the Robert F. Toigo Fellowship. A Bronx native, she now lives in Brooklyn with her family. Her interests include African Art, the theatre, national parks, and travel. She joined Brooklyn Org’s Board of Directors in February 2022.