I sat down with Michelle Curry, our human resources person at Idaho Public Television, to learn about her journey to joining our group. “I am the Human Resources Business Partner III for Idaho Public Television and some other select agencies under the State Board of Education. I feel I am the personnel glue at times,” she laughs. “(I am here) for keeping everybody on track and keeping us aligned with our mission.” Michelle feels she’s in the right environment. “It really aligned with my goals to do good things. I love being a part of something big and making good things happen.”
A longtime Idaho resident, Michelle is an avid outdoorswoman. “I love going camping and hiking and exploring nature in untouched settings. I love exploring places I haven’t seen.” She prefers camping on BLM land to avoid the crowds. “Hells Canyon area; anything in a volcanic region.” She went to college in Idaho and worked on a geology project that took her to the Challis area. “I often joke that I took the roundabout approach. I have always worked as a civil servant for the State of Idaho. I was trying to escape the office work I was doing at the time, being a management assistant and business operations manager. I thought I would take my hobby and go to school for my love of minerals,” Michelle says. She earned a degree in geology and environmental studies and has minors in sustainability and GIS. She took a break from working for the state for four years to work in the environmental field. “And I found out in the end that (minerals were) my hobby and I needed to focus on my love for helping people.”
Another hobby Michelle enjoys is traveling. “I love to travel. I’ve been very lucky in my life to have the opportunity to travel. I first went to the Mediterranean. And that gave me a taste of wanting to explore more. And so recently, I was able to go to Nepal. (I went to) Kathmandu. And that was a fabulous trip to explore different cultures. And also to see the Himalayas. With my (geology background) it was a trip of a lifetime.” She toured the area and participated in a meditation course. “It was an emotional intelligence workshop I attended at Kopan Monastery. It was a great experience to be with 122 students in the class and I only met four other Americans…I am planning on going back,” she says. Nepal’s geology is also a draw for her. “It’s actually very similar to the Challis area. There’s a lot of tectonic uplift and some very old glaciers and moraines. It really reminded me of Idaho, but on a larger scale.”
When it comes to snacks, she’s a fan of cheese and veggies. “I’ve been called a rabbit because I eat lots of vegetables. Potatoes, carrots and broccoli: those are usually my favorites. I like using blue cheese to dip my veggies in. I like steaming them with a little bit of lemon and olive oil.”
And her favorite PBS Kids character is a longtime classic – Big Bird. “I grew up watching Sesame Street as a child, and I was able to introduce it to my children as well through PBS.”