Personal

Born in December 17, 1964 in Manhattan Beach, California U.S., Michele Tafoya studied at the University of California. She received her bachelor’s degree in mass communications from the University in the year 1988 and later did her master in business administration in 1991 at the University of Southern California. She married Mark Vandersall in the year 2000. Her first child was born in 2005. Tafoya lives with her family in Edina Minnesota. During her childhood, she was affected by eating disorder.

Profession

Tafoya began her career as sports reporter in the year 1993 when she started working for WAQS-AM in Charlotte. She also worked as reporter and anchor for WCCO-TV situated in Minneapolis for over three years till 1998. She was also the host of Minnesota Timberwolves and the sideline reporter at Midwest Sports Channel. She also did play by play coverage for the Big Ten women’s volleyball and basketball. She also served as sideline reporter at KFAN-AM for Minnesota Vikings from 1994 to 1998. She worked as commentator for WNBA on Lifetime for two years from 1997 to 1999. From 1994 to 2000, she was the game reporter and the studio host for college football, basketball and NFL at CBS Sports. She worked for ABC/ESPN since 2000 and joined Monday Night Football at ESPN in 2006.

Important Assignments

Tafoya has done a variety of on-air roles including working as reporter for Monday Night Football and the NFL studio programs at ESPN. She has worked on several ESPN programs like Monday Night Countdown and Sports Center. Tafoya did a rare dual reporting on NFL and NBA covering the Jets Dolphins MNF game on ESPN and the Lakers-Heat on ABC. She repeated the same feat at the MNF final season in San Diego, when she also reported on the Sun Lakers Christmas day game of the NBA in Los Angeles for ABC.

Tafoya was voted as the one of the top female sportscasters in the year 2009 by the American Sportscasters Association. She was also ranked as one of the most likeable TV sports personalities in the year 2006 by the Davie Brown Index. She was honored with the Gracie award by the American Women in Radio and Television for Outstanding Achievement by an Individual On- Air Personality in appreciation for the WNBA work she did with Lifetime.