Mikaela grew up in Seattle, Washington and started her career in marketing and print production. After moving to Okanogan County to be with her (now) husband who worked at the US/Canadian border, she began working in community outreach for the local hospital system. After growing in the field, she eventually ended up at the larger health system working as the Director of Marketing and Public Relations where she continued making community connections and seeing the disparity and inequity of services across the board for the minority populations in the region. After leaving the healthcare system, she began her own business, SubKulture Co. and made it her mission to serve the underserved in new, innovative ways. 

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Mikaela had the pleasure of working with Joy (co-founder of AO) through a healthcare internship while working at the hospital. Joy came in through the "Project Hope" program and Mikaela kept in contact, eventually hiring her on as a staff member of SubKulture. After taking on different projects in the area and realizing we wouldn't gain traction unless they controlled the narrative, they decided to officially organize and establish Aboriginal Outfitters. The rest is history.