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Michelle co-founded Viatru (World2Market), a company that sold retail and wholesale fair trade and eco-friendly farm products from developing communities, accompanied by consumer focused information/digital documentaries about the benefits of these choices. In the company's years of operation, it connected the voices, faces, and products of thousands of artisans and producer associations in developing countries, with consumers and mainstream retailers like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Starbucks in North America. The regular profiles of Ms. Long and Viatru in places such as Grist Magazine, USA Today, NY Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, and the LOHAS journal, raised significant public awareness about fair trade. Ms. Long is a steering committee member to the Northwest chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and a regular speaker about social entrepreneurship, bridging the digital divide, and a 'different globalization scenario'. She has worked as a researcher and board member to the Business Economic and Development Program, with the goal of facilitating the use of University of Washington resources toward the development of small businesses in economically distressed/emerging communities of WA State. She attended the MBA program at the UW and had a successful career in sales and marketing with two Fortune 500 companies.

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE): www.livingeconomies.org

Sustainable Connections: www.SConnect.org

from the website...BALLE promotes:

• Local ownership of businesses
• Creating a sense of community and place
• Structuring business ownership for community accountability
• Regional and renewable production of basic necessities (food, energy, shelter, clothing)
• Changing consumers to customers through education
• Appropriately scaled industry
• Community investment and financing socially & ecologically responsible businesses
• Local sourcing and retention of capital within a community
• Public policies that support independent, local businesses
• Reusing 'waste' -- waste as opportunity
• Selling your business without selling your values
• Independent business alliances, networking & peer mentoring
• Independent media and bookstores
• Environmentally sound buildings and well-planned, livable communities
• Local arts and culture, and neighborhood tourism
• Economic democracy