Michelle Koo is a research herpetologist working as the Biodiversity Informatics and GIS Specialist at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley, where her current research focuses on spatial modeling of species distributions. In her previous position at the California Academy of Sciences, she conducted and managed amphibian and reptile field surveys in National Forests and other public lands throughout California for the Department of Herpetology. She has participated in HerpNET, the multi-institutional collaborative project to make georeferenced herpetological specimen records available through distributed database web portals. She is also an active consultant for AmphibiaWeb, an online resource bringing together the latest research on amphibian natural history, biology and decline. She is a California native with a family who loves exploring and camping along the entire length of the Pacific coast.

AmphibiaWeb was borne out of a concern and alarm over the global decline of amphibians and the lack of integrated resources and programs, in the field and in the lab. AmphibiaWeb envisions a shared, open-access resource on amphibian biology that is useful to both professional scientists, resource managers, and the public in hopes of conserving the remaining species. As a website that employs emerging technology from the biodiversity informatics community as well as integrating traditional scientific publications, photography, and sound files, Amphibiaweb hopes to establish a "homepage" for every species of amphibians in the world.