She is the girl who was put into an Italian fifth grade classroom without speaking a word of Italian — and finished the year second in her class. She has been figuring out how to build the table on the fly ever since.

Michele Palermo has lived a life that defies a single category. Milwaukee and Rome. A job in a DC law firm while co-founding a theater company at 24. Head writer for Martha Stewart. Chief of Staff to the First Lady of Virginia. A single line in Broadcast News and the first truly independent television series ever made in the United States.

She speaks about all of it — the independent filmmaking journey, the art of reinventing yourself in midlife, the very specific terror of finally making the project you have always dreamed of, and what happens when you stop waiting for permission and start building your own table.

She is available for universities, film festivals, industry panels, women’s organizations, and private events.