Michele Hays, Neighbor

Michele Hays is an Evanston community advocate best known for founding Back on Their Feet, Evanston IL: an online community working to connect underserved people with resources. She has worked on everything from crowdsourcing for homeless families to finding Farsi translators to advocating for social services in Evanston's budget. Whatever the community needed, she and supporters in the group worked to provide.

Michele's talents lie in connecting the dots: she knows traditional solutions to problems, but she also finds innovative workarounds when they aren't enough. Her contributions include her work with Evanston Cradle to Career, boards including Puerta Abierta Preschool, Brummel Park Neighbors, and Bermuda Court Condo Association. She was active in PTA leadership and continues to advocate for special-needs students and their families via the CASE Parent Partners program. Michele has been recognized for her community safety work by the Evanston Police Department, and her Hands Across Howard partnership initiative was recognized by the Rogers Park Business Association.

Michele considers herself blessed to have the support of her family: her husband, Jason Hays, is an Evanston Fire Captain; her son, Scott Hays, is a tenacious ETHS graduate and current Oakton College student. She grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where her mother, a professor at Xavier University, inspired Michele with stories of her grassroots political action in Argentina. In addition to her Bachelor of Arts, she also holds two Associates degrees from Thomas More College, where her father was chair of the Philosophy department.