A forensic, biology and natural science teacher, Michelle Potter was once a crime scene investigator. 

“I was the bloodstain pattern analyst,” Potter said. 

She dealt with crime scenes from burglars, to stolen property, all the way up to homicides.

 “The most impactful case I worked on was a graduate from westside, that I also did not know about until I came here was the Jessica O’grady crime in 2006,” Potter said. 

O’grady was 19 years old and the only case Potter had that was a conviction without a body. 

“I would consider that my career case because it was such a big case and one that I still think about to this day because I still wonder where she is,” Potter said.  “Even with the conviction there is no closure.”

Potter worked with the Sheriff’s office for several years before receiving her master’s of arts in teaching. 

She grew up in a small town in Nebraska called O’Neill. She grew up knowing she was always interested in science. 

“I grew up messing with bugs and interested in everything involving science,” said Potter. 

She was always fascinated with science and how things worked. During high school in her senior year, she was able to attend NorthEast community college in Norfolk, Nebraska. 

“I took these classes because dual enrollment was not available in my town so I decided to get my general classes through that because it was cheaper, and then transfer those credits to a university school,” Potter said. 

She graduated from a Catholic high school, graduating with 18 people in her class. 

“When I was graduating high school, I was not sure what I wanted to do. I knew I was interested in science so that first led me to nursing school,” Potter said. 

Potter attended the University of Nebraska Medical Center and earned a scholarship because of her grades. She claimed that “she did not like nursing because she was not really sure what to do.” In view of the fact that because she attended nursing, her professor was the one to introduce her to a forensic science pathologist, who does autopsies. This spiked her interest in forensic science. 

Potter’s high school science teacher inspired her by his enthusiasm and interest in science when he was in the classroom. 

“He was the reason I am absolutely in love with science till this day,” Potter said. 

After she received her bachelors in science and nursing, she attended the University of Oklahoma near

  Oklahoma City. She lived in Oklahoma and studied forensic science. 

Potter went into teaching to be able to spend more time with her family. 

“My husband was in law enforcement and we didn’t want someone else raising our child, especially at night,” Potter said. 

She went into teaching science to still be involved in forensics. Some of the cases Potter dealt with were involved at the Youth Center, which inspired her to go down the teaching path. Some of the kids were at rock bottom and she wanted to be a positive role model for kids like them. She started the teaching program in 2015 at college of Saint Mary in Omaha. The program was for Potter to get a degree in teaching science. Potter started teaching in 2016 which led her to an OPS highschool, Bryan High. 

A deciding factor for Potter to become a teacher today was so that she could be home with her daughter more but also have a positive impact on kids. 

“I get to do what I love to do and be with my family, and I just love it here at Westside,” Potter said. 

She is going into her second year of teaching at Westside. It took Potter three different degrees before she found what she loves doing most, and it happens to be here at Westside

“You might not always know what you wanna do when you finish high school, and that’s okay,” said Potter.