Michelle Holmes was a noted psychologist and economist. Her specialty was applying modern psychological theory to make the assumptions about individual behavior in economic models more realistic. In 2077, at the peak of her career, she shocked the academic world by emigrating to the Lunar colony. In her own words, she made the move because she "wanted to be part of a new frontier."
As a colonist, she was officially an elementary schoolteacher, but in her spare time she taught many other students. Among the Lunar colonists, she is probably best known for her work in coordinating students taking social science correspondence cources. In 2081, Michelle Holmes and her student , with others, founded the . Michelle Holmes was one of the negotiators in the .
After the Lunar colony gained independence in 2102, Michelle Holmes was the first President of the Free Republic of Luna. After completing her term in 2110, she retired from public life.