Michelle Hope is not your average Sexologist.
Michelle Hope Slaybaugh, better known as MHSexpert, is an unapologetic Black feminist sexologist, educator, strategist and speaker who has spent more than 15 years having the conversations about sexuality that most people were taught not to have.
With a Master’s degree in Human Development and extensive postgraduate training in sexuality, Michelle has built her career at the intersection of sexuality, race, identity, education and power. Her work is grounded in reproductive justice and one pretty simple truth: sex has never been just about sex.
Race, gender, class, culture and politics shape what we learn about our bodies, who gets to experience pleasure, how we navigate relationships and even what we believe we're allowed to want. Michelle has spent her career connecting those dots, and doing it in language that doesn't require a PhD, a policy degree or a dictionary to understand.
Her work spans the lifespan. Michelle has designed and led sexual health programs for young people, developed curricula and educational resources, trained educators and professionals, worked with parents and communities, and helped organizations tackle some of the most personal, political and occasionally uncomfortable conversations affecting our lives.
Her early work included designing and leading sexual health programming at Harlem Children’s Zone, where the classroom became one of the places that shaped the MHSexpert approach: give people good information, create enough safety for them to ask the real question, and leave the judgment at the door.
As her career grew, so did the work.
Michelle moved deeper into national sex education policy, reproductive justice and advocacy, eventually expanding into communications, narrative strategy and movement leadership. Her work with organizations including SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change and Black Feminist Future deepened her understanding of how policy, politics and cultural narratives determine what we're allowed to teach, whose bodies are protected, whose choices are respected and who gets heard when those decisions are made.
Turns out, the sexologist never really left the room.
Today, Michelle also serves as a working board member with SafeBAE, the only survivor-founded, youth-led national organization working to end sexual violence among middle and high school students. SafeBAE equips young people to prevent harm, support their peers and create safer school communities. The work keeps Michelle connected to what young people are actually navigating around consent, healthy relationships, sexual violence, sextortion, identity and growing up in a digital culture.
Real. Raw. Unapologetic.
Michelle has long described her approach as “edu-tainment”: bring the research and the receipts, but bring some humor, pop culture and real talk with you. Her goal isn't to shock people for sport. It's to make complicated conversations accessible without watering them down and create enough honesty in the room for people to ask better questions.
That approach has taken Michelle from classrooms and community organizations to national conferences, policy conversations and the TEDx stage. Her expertise has been featured by The History Channel, The Breakfast Club, BET, POPSUGAR, Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Guttmacher Institute, among others.
Now, MHSexpert brings all of those worlds together: sexuality and education, race and identity, pleasure and relationships, policy and politics, reproductive justice and culture.
Because understanding sexuality means understanding a whole lot more than what happens in the bedroom.
Although, let's be clear, Michelle is perfectly happy to talk about that too.Michelle has dedicated her career to understanding and communicating to the masses the complex intersections of various social identities: race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, through a Reproductive Justice lens. She has taken deliberate actions in exploring and developing a unique language to speak to communities of color. Michelle feels as though her experience in working with marginalized urban communities, and understanding holistic sexuality has shaped her perspectives on the direct connections between sexuality and generational poverty in those communities. Her passion and commitment to the work have provided her with a unique style that has the ability to captivate and educate across various populations; with a proven track record of developing, implementing and evaluating dynamic and creative programming for individuals. Over the course of her career, the programs she’s developed have been facilitated on a local and national level. She has worked with the Harlem Children's Zone, Community Health Network, New York City Department of Hygiene and Mental Health’s Community Engagement Committee, Phoenix House, Pacific Oaks College, among many others.
An award-winning, passionate “edu-tainer”, Michelle combines her love of pop culture, entertainment, and sexuality into events and media content that educate and motivate. It has been Michelle’s goal to reach the masses to engage in real, raw and unapologetic conversations about sexuality. If you have questions about sexual issues that hinder your personal progress, she has answers: non-judgmental real talk.
Her sexual education seminars, lectures and workshops educate individuals on safe sexual practices and prevention, including but not limited to therapeutic alliances dealing with trauma, reproductive justice, youth rights, LBGT-Q inclusivity, parenting skills, creating safe spaces and healthy relationships. In the media, Michelle has appeared on Power105s The Breakfast Club, Roland Martin Unfiltered, BET Black Coffee , Dr. Brenda Wade's Modern Love, Lip Service, Brilliant Idiots, and many others.