Michelle Haefele is Research Scientist in department of Agricultural & Resource Economics at Colorado State University. She has done her PhD from Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, at Colorado State University in 1999. He past research includes studies of the economies of wilderness and national monument gateway communities; the economic impacts of public lands on rural communities; analysis of the changing economy of the West; research on the impacts of oil and gas development on western communities; economic analyses of potential oil and gas development in the Rocky Mountain region; analysis of oil and gas drilling permits and leases on federal public lands; and an analysis of the influence of the pace of oil and gas drilling on western communities.

Michelle Haefele current research projects include estimation of the total economic value of the National Park Service, the cost of wildfire suppression and fuel reduction treatments, economic impacts of hunting, and the non-market costs and benefits of oil and gas development.