A Peabody and six-time Emmy Award® winner, Michelle Genece Patterson has nearly 30 years of broadcasting and production experience in network and cable television news and documentaries. 

Michelle currently serves as Senior Producer for the cross-platform, multi-network, global initiative CNN Heroes which recognizes and honors everyday people whose positive works help to change the world. Having helped launch this award-winning campaign, now in its seventeenth year and based in New York, Michelle oversees editorial content - supervising story selection, vetting and verification, production, staff assignments and cross-network coordination for the campaign. Michelle also serves as liaison to CNN's Standards & Practices and Legal departments and as Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa’s producer for the annual special, “CNN Heroes: An-All Star Tribute.”

Michelle broadened the scope of the CNN Heroes Award by cultivating a ten-year collaboration with the Annenberg Foundation, an organization recognized for its support of nonprofits globally. Now, she manages a new collaboration with The Elevate Foundation, whose mission is to amplify changemakers and drive meaningful impact. This collaboration will help CNN Heroes sustain their good work and strengthen their abilities to leverage the exposure, opportunities and resources awarded to them by CNN. The Elevate Foundation is providing Top 10 CNN Heroes with invaluable non-profit training and has awarded each 2022 Top 10 CNN Hero with a $25,000 grant to further their work.

A native of Boston, MA, Michelle is of Haitian descent and currently resides in Yonkers, NY with her husband and young daughter.