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Michele A Rasmussen

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Michele's relationship with Duke goes back to 1992 when she started her graduate studies in the department of Biological Anthropology & Anatomy. All she really knew about Duke then was that it had a world-renowned primate center and a men's basketball team that was pretty good (her expertise in collegiate sports was fairly limited). Fortunately, her appreciation for the opportunities at Duke and the incredible accomplishments of its students, faculty, and staff grew considerably in the years that followed. Michele came to Duke from New Zealand with a stopover in California, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in history & art history at UCLA. Despite a fine-arts major and film school aspirations, she quickly gravitated toward anthropology and the study of non-human primates. By the end of Michele's junior year she had made the decision to pursue primatology at graduate school. As a Ph.D. student at Duke she studied the activity cycles of lemurs and spent 15 months in the dry tropical forests of northwestern Madagascar following mongoose lemurs and brown lemurs around the clock as they foraged, traveled and slept. After earning her Ph.D. in 1999, Michele continued teaching in biological anthropology and anatomy while working in the Duke administration, first in Student Affairs and then in Trinity College. In 2004 she became director of the Academic Advising Center and academic dean for premajor students. Currently, she teaches a first year seminar, Lemur Behavior and Ecology. When not advising or teaching students, Michele spends time watching movies, listening to music, collecting Tintin memorabilia and chasing squirrels with her Chihuahua/Jack Russell mix, Milou (pronounced Mee-Loo).

Office: 112 Academic Advising Center (684-6217)
(919) 684-6217
micheler@duke.edu
Residence: Residence: 114 Gilbert-Addoms (613-2319)