Michelle Hankins

Michelle L. Hankins has been a writer and editor for nearly eight years, having covered business and technology as well as local, state and federal government. Some of the highlights of her career include covering presidential press conferences at the White House during the Clinton administration, the Million Man March and other high-profile business and cultural events in Washington, D.C.

In 1997, Hankins founded an organization for alumni journalists at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She has served on the university's nonprofit Alumni Association Board for seven years, most recently as the association's vice president of programs. During her time on the board, she has organized donor campaigns that increased board-member giving by nearly 50 percent.

Hankins happily devotes most of her spare time to helping animals. She has volunteered with the Homeless Animals Rescue Team (HART) and A Forever Home Rescue Foundation as a foster care provider, mainly for adult special-needs dogs. Shortly after beginning with HART, she was asked to be the organization's fundraising director. During her tenure as fundraising director, the amount of money raised by the fundraising committee increased by 40 percent.

She was asked to serve on the Coalition for Animal Protection and became instrumental in working with the Arlington County, Virginia, shelter and county government to encourage progressive change in support of animals. Hankins is currently president of DC Metro No More Homeless Pets and is working with a team of volunteers to host the D.C. area's first Super Pet Adoption.

She is a 1994 graduate of The Fund for American Studies' Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University and a 1996 government and politics graduate of George Mason University. Hankins was chosen to speak at her commencement ceremony and was invited back by the College of Arts and Sciences in 1998 to speak as an alumna.

Originally from just outside of Richmond, Virginia, Hankins moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1992 and has lived there since. She currently resides in northern Virginia with her two adopted dogs, Scottie and G, and her FeLV-positive cat, Chester.