Yes, Dr. Michelle is still married to her beloved husband, Shane, and they share three daughters. The love birds celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary last year.
Dr. Oakley isn't from the Yukon area. She was born and raised in Indiana, and it wasn't until at the University of Michigan, where she was studying Animal Biology, that she learned about the area.
Her university had a study in the Yukon and she took her first trip to the area as a field assistant on an arctic ground squirrel ecology study. She then found the place the most incredible wilderness.
She knew right away that the beautiful Canadian Territory would be her forever home.
Adding more, she met and fell in love with Shane, a local wildland firefighter, on the same trip. He kept referring to her as a "squirrel girl" concerning her studies.
She came back to Yukon a year later, and the pair started dating. Oakley, who had never left Yukon before, came to visit her at the University of Michigan. He landed in Detroit and Michelle picked him up.
Coming from a rural area, he had never been on an escalator or a building over three stories.
Her friends used to call him "Crocodile Dundee" because the film was out around then. For him, it was a different experience. Dr. Oakley went back to Yukon after graduating and the rest is history.
They married on December 10, 1992, in Hawaii. After the marriage, she joined The Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, Canada.
She completed her education in 2000 and earned her M.D. in veterinary medicine. Shen then worked as the wildlife veterinarian and regional biologist for Yukon's Fish & Wildlife Department for nine years.
During the pandemic, with jobs and Covid-19 restrictions, the husband and wife had to be in a long-distance relationship for a long time. Yet, their love and devotion remained strong.
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