Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Michael was still in college when both his grandmother and great-grandmother were diagnosed with breast cancer. In response, he created the Think Pink Holiday Gala, a small dinner-party fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, now known as Komen for the Cure.
What began as a personal act of love became an early glimpse into the work that would shape much of his professional life: bringing people together around causes that matter.
Michael earned a business degree in marketing management from the University of Memphis and eventually decided to pursue a master’s degree in advertising and public relations from the University of Alabama, which is ultimately what brought him to Birmingham.
Since moving to the Magid City, Michael has built a career at the intersection of communications, public health, advocacy, and nonprofit leadership. His work has included public relations at Friends Birmingham Botanical Gardens, campaign strategy at The Modern Brand, and communications and executive leadership at GASP, where he served as executive director for eight years.
After eight years in executive leadership at GASP, Michael began looking for an opportunity to apply his experience in a new way: one that still centered mission, strategy, and community impact, but with more room for joy, connection, and care. That path led him to Hand in Paw.
His first introduction to the organization came years earlier through Beth Franklin, Hand in Paw’s founder. In 2011, a friend recruited Michael to help launch the Junior Board at Oasis Counseling for Women & Children — a role he was well-suited for, having already helped start a Junior Board during his time at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Beth was then serving as director of external relations at Oasis, and Michael worked closely with her on communications for the Junior Board and its signature event, ArtCard.
“That’s how I first learned about Hand in Paw,” Michael said. “Years later, when I saw an opening for director of communications, I immediately knew I had to apply.”
Today, Michael serves as Hand in Paw’s director of advancement, a title he describes, only half-jokingly, as “Communications Plus.
He leads Hand in Paw’s marketing and communications strategy, overseeing branding, public relations, advertising, digital content, website strategy, social media, newsletters, and mission storytelling.
“Depending on the day, I might be troubleshooting technology, analyzing data, supporting an online fundraising campaign, strengthening our digital systems, or helping execute a major event,” he said. “Working in a small nonprofit has taught me how to move fluidly between high-level strategy and hands-on implementation.”
At its core, his work is about translating Hand in Paw’s mission into clear, compelling messages that help people understand the impact, feel connected to the work, and take action.
“I help make sure people understand what we do, why it matters, and how they can be part of the joy,” Michael said.
For Michael, the mission is deeply personal.
He grew up with cats and has had dogs for most of his adult life. He has always felt a strong connection to what he calls the “uncanny, life-changing bond between humans and animals.”
“My pets have gotten me through some difficult times. So I 'get it' on a very deep and personal level,” he said.
That understanding became even more tangible during his first month on staff, when he photographed a Hand in Paw visit at the VA hospital in Birmingham. There, he followed Darcy, one of Hand in Paw’s Therapy Dogs, as she visited patients in the palliative care unit.
“Seeing her connect with senior veterans going through difficult health challenges really brought home the gravity of this work,” Michael said. “This is not dogs visiting offices and making people smile. This is animals doing real work: comforting people who need respite, providing deep and meaningful connection that can change the trajectory of someone’s prognosis and recovery.”
That moment helped him understand the depth of Hand in Paw’s impact — and the strength of the community trust the organization has built over nearly 30 years.
“Whenever I wear my Hand in Paw T-shirt in public, people stop me and say something kind about the organization or share a story about how they know about HIP,” he said. “It’s amazing how many lives this organization has touched.”
Outside the office, Michael is often happiest in the kitchen or the garden.
He comes from a family of home cooks and learned by watching, helping, and eventually being trusted to get dinner started before his parents came home from work. Even before that, he remembers foraging for berries and herbs around the neighborhood and making little mixtures of his own.
“It’s honestly amazing I didn’t poison myself,” he said.
That early curiosity became a lifelong love of cooking, along with one highly specific devotion: pickles.
Michael describes his obsession with pickles and pickling as “unhealthy” — a passion that dates back to childhood, when he earned the unfortunate nickname “Mickle the Pickle.”
Gardening is another family inheritance, passed down from parents and grandmothers with green thumbs.
At home, Michael and his husband share life with two pets: Mia, a 12-year-old Nebelung cat whose name nods to her tendency to go “missing in action,” and Hugo, an endlessly curious 3-year-old French Bulldog. While they get along great, he's pretty sure Mia thinks of Hugo as her annoying little brother.
When asked about a favorite quote or guiding principle, Michael points to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous line: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
For Michael, it is a reminder that complexity is not something to avoid. Often, it is where the truth lives.
That perspective makes sense for someone whose career has moved between marketing and mission, storytelling and strategy, data and emotion, leadership and joy.
At Hand in Paw, Michael has found a place where those threads work together, using strategy, storytelling, and community engagement to help more people see what the organization has known for nearly 30 years: connection can heal, animals can reach places words cannot, and joy is serious work.
This post is part of our 30th Anniversary #WeAreHIP campaign, a celebration of the people who keep Hand in Paw moving forward every day. From Therapy Teams in the field to the staff working behind the scenes, we’re shining a light on the dedicated individuals whose commitment, creativity, and heart power our mission across Central Alabama and Tuscaloosa. As we celebrate 30 years of connection and impact, we’d love to hear from you, too.
Have you experienced the work of a Hand in Paw Therapy Team? Attended an event? Supported our mission in your own way? Share your story and help us mark this milestone year by adding your voice to the legacy!
