Grounded expertise.
Human-centered impact.
I’m Dr. Michelle Scotton, a health scientist, double board-certified nurse practitioner, educator, and systems thinker whose career has crossed clinical care, research, policy, and leadership.
For more than two decades, I’ve worked alongside individuals, families, clinicians, researchers, and leaders navigating complex challenges. Across these experiences, I’ve become increasingly interested not only in what helps people thrive, but in the systems, environments, and decisions that make thriving more or less possible.
The through-line has always been people.
My academic and clinical work has centered on improving health and systems of care, particularly for people with disabilities and their families. As a faculty member at Duke University, I conduct research, develop and evaluate interventions, educate future and current professionals, and contribute to clinical and policy work that translates evidence into better outcomes.
That work has taught me something that extends far beyond healthcare: systems shape human experience.
How organizations are designed, how leaders make decisions, what assumptions we carry, and whether people have the support and conditions they need to contribute fully all influence what becomes possible.
That realization led me to found Optimizing Health Collaborative, where I extend this work beyond traditional academic and clinical settings through coaching, consulting, speaking, and collaboration with individuals and organizations navigating growth, change, and complexity.
The most effective systems care for the humans within them.
Whether I’m working with a patient, a research team, a healthcare organization, or a leadership group, I return to the same questions:
Are we seeing clearly?
Are we solving the right problem?
What is the system making easier or harder?
What would help people fully contribute, create, and thrive?
I believe meaningful change happens when rigorous evidence meets human experience, when insights become action, and when we design systems around the people who actually live and work within them.
Trusted by leaders and organizations across disciplines.
“Dr. Scotton Franklin has given us the ammunition we need to advocate effectively.”
- Physician, Senior Health Leader, & North Carolina-based Disability Advocate
What I value
Curiosity.
The willingness to keep learning and question what we think we know.
Courage.
The willingness to move toward possibility even when the outcome isn’t certain.
Humanity.
Remembering that behind every outcome, policy, organization, and system are actual people.
Creation.
Turning insight and possibility into something that didn’t exist before.
A career across disciplines.
A perspective shaped by more than two decades across healthcare, research, education, and systems.
Academic & Research
Faculty Member, Duke University
Health Services & Systems Research
Disability, Health, & Policy
Clinical & Education
PhD, Duke University
MSN & BSN, UNC-Chapel Hill
Board-certified Family & Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Clinical care across the lifespan
Leadership & Impact
Founder, Optimizing Health Collaborative, PLLC
Consulting & Executive Coaching
Keynotes & Workshops