Michelle Cole

Partner & Shareholder

Michelle Cole is an award-winning journalist and highly skilled researcher, writer and communications strategist. With more than 20 years of experience covering Northwest issues, governments, leaders and politics, her knowledge of the regional public policy landscape is unmatched. Based in the firm’s Portland office, Michelle serves clients across the Northwest, providing high quality content for government relations, crisis communications and digital communications. Michelle also conducts media training and provides support for ballot measure and issue advocacy campaigns.

Prior to joining Gallatin, Michelle served as the Capitol bureau chief for The Oregonian where she reported on the Oregon Legislature, state government and politics. In addition, she has extensive experience in covering health and social services, budget and taxes, the environment and natural resource policy. Previously, she worked for the Idaho Statesman where she served as a reporter, metro editor and editorial page editor.

While at The Oregonian, Michelle’s reporting led to public policy changes in Oregon’s child welfare system. She earned Oregon’s top award for investigative reporting – the Bruce Baer Award – and her peers honored her work with several first-place awards from The Society of Professional Journalists.

Michelle has a Master’s of Journalism degree from U.C. Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts degree in British/American Literature from Scripps College. She is a board member for Youth Rights & Justice, a non-profit serving Oregon’s vulnerable children and families. Michelle and her husband, John, live in Tualatin.

“The values of Gallatin – bipartisanship, integrity and advocacy for the economic and social advancement of the Northwest — matter to me. As a journalist I built a network of trusted sources. I’ve dissected complicated issues, found the story behind the story and communicated what was most important to the public. I’m putting those skills to work for our clients, from creating website content, to writing speeches to crafting materials for lawmakers and the media.”