Depth, on purpose.
Michelle earned a PhD because she liked critically thinking about things that mattered. She brings the same attention home. Her life now is smaller by design, and she'll tell you it's the most demanding work she's done.
Sarasota, Florida
Michelle Peterman, PhDScholar & Educator
PhD and higher-education professional. Full-time mom of two. A philanthropist and steady supporter of educational foundations.
About
A scholar, a neighbor, a mother.
Michelle Peterman earned her doctorate in 2020 at a university in southern Florida, capping years spent in higher education. She loved every bit of the demanding work in higher education as a grad student and a university administrator.
Her focus now is closer to home. She and her husband Michael are raising two energetic boys, and the pace she keeps is the one she chose — family mornings, a full house, and a life built deliberately small. The discipline that carried her through a PhD is still very much in view, but she simply pointed it somewhere new.
Beyond her family, she gives steady time and support to foundations and charities across the country and abroad. She stays active, travels when the calendar allows, and otherwise keeps things modest. Ask her what she does now and the honest answer is the one she's proudest of: she's raising her children.
Doctoral Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Conferred
2020, southern Florida university
Background
Higher education & university administration
Family
Full-time mom of two, Florida
Philosophy
What She Believes
The discipline that carried her through a doctorate is the same one she brings to a full house: pay attention, do the work, and stay with it.
What follows is less a philosophy of work than a way of living — quieter than the years in higher education, and, she would say, harder.
Home is the work now.
She traded a career she loved for two energetic boys and hasn't looked back. Her days run on their schedule: early mornings, full afternoons, not much idle time. What's left goes to staying active, the occasional trip, and a short list of people she keeps close.
Generous, quietly.
She backs foundations and charities across the country and overseas, and she'd rather you didn't hear about it from her. The causes vary. It's the same instinct that ran through her higher education experience: do the work, let it speak.
Community
Home comes first.
Florida is where Michelle and Michael are raising their family and where she keeps her life close to the ground: family, a few good friends, and the small commitments that hold a community together. The causes she supports reach a good deal farther — across the country and overseas — but the center of everything is right here, at home, with her family.
- Sarasota, FL
- Home & Family
- Nationwide
- Foundations Supported
“The most useful thing I can give anyone is my full attention.”
Michelle Peterman, PhD
Press
In the News
openPR — August 2026
Behind VeraData's $1 Billion Mission: How Michael and Michelle Peterman Built a Life Rooted in Purpose, Community, and Sarasota
A profile of the Peterman family's roots in Southwest Florida, and how a shared commitment to service shapes life at home and the philanthropic mission behind VeraData.