Michelle Calvert grew up in Stanmore and went to school in Annandale and Petersham. She worked as a Police Prosecutor and as a senior investigator with the War Crimes Unit of the Commonwealth Department of the Attorney General. In 1996 she was working for LEAD, an organisation committed to reducing the risk of lead poisoning, especially in children.

She was President of the Haberfield Association for 10 years and was active in local environmental and community issues. She is married and has four children.

Her election leaflet reported that she lived under the flight path in Haberfield, which may explain her candidacy in 1995.

Sources used to compile this entry: Putting Skirts on the Sacred Benches: Women Candidates for the New South Wales Parliament, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2006, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/pssb/home.html; Ephemera on NSW State and local elections, Box 8, Mitchell Library collection, State Library of NSW, Sydney; Ephemera on Federal Elections 1996. Mitchell Library collection, State Library of NSW, Sydney.