CBEY Resident Fellows, Experts, Faculty, Staff

Michelle Gabriel

Resident Fellow at Yale Center for Business and the Environment
Lecturer at Yale School of the Environment
Smiling woman with curly blonde hair wearing a patterned dress, seated in a cozy living room.

Michelle Gabriel is an educator, researcher, and political economist whose work spans industry practice, academic research, and legislative change to drive sustainable transformation in the fashion industry. 

She is a Resident Fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, a Lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment, and a Lecturer at Columbia University's Sustainability Management program. She is completing her Ph.D. in Social Policy and Political Economy at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Her research sits at the intersection of political economy, organizational behavior, and cultural production, with a focus on neoliberal governance, overconsumption, and inequality in the global fashion industry. Her publications span peer-reviewed book chapters, policy reports, and public scholarship, with research partnerships bridging industry, government, and academia. 

She chaired the NYC Local Law 112 Textile Purchasing Task Force and is an organizing coalition member advancing the New York State Fashion Act. She brings more than 15 years of fashion industry experience to her academic work and designed and led the first research-focused sustainable fashion master's program in the Americas.