During his nearly 25 years in higher education, Mikhail has developed and taught numerous undergraduate and graduate-level restorative justice courses and courses on ethnic conflict, psychotherapy, positive psychology, and the psychology of race and ethnicity. Since 2009, his scholarship and community work have focused primarily on restorative justice, with numerous restorative justice publications in academic journals and mainstream outlets, such as Psychology Today, Truthout, and the Huffington Post. Mikhail is also actively involved in community organizing, including restorative justice trainings and community events. He has served on various committees and boards, including the Urbana Citizen Police Review Board, Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) Steering Committee, and the Illinois Balanced & Restorative Justice (IBARJ) Board.

 Mikhail is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at Vermont Law School, where he has taught summer graduate courses on restorative justice through the Center for Justice Reform. Mikhail holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Michigan State University and a bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania.