MICHELLE WITTHAUS
Policy Design + Activation Partner

BIOGRAPHY
As a 26-year resident of St. Louis, Michelle believes that St. Louis can be a place that benefits everyone, if only we harness the power of our people. This belief led Michelle to launch a participatory budgeting project in St. Louis’ 6th ward in 2012. The participatory budgeting project supported residents in determining how the ward’s capital funds would be spent. As part of the participatory budgeting effort, Michelle received Invest STL’s first community grant. Now she has come full circle.

Michelle has a BA in elementary education from Saint Louis University and started her career teaching within the Saint Louis Public School District. Since then, her career path has taken her through community organizing, philanthropy, public health and policy work. For over four years she managed the Health Equity Works (formerly known as For the Sake of All) project at Washington University where she led multi-sector workgroups and community engagement efforts focused on eliminating racial health disparities. Most recently, she led advocacy and policy efforts at Generate Health to better support the health of Black moms and babies.

Michelle lives in Fox Park and loves getting out and about. She enjoys dancing, roller skating, bicycling, and snowboarding.

CONTACT INFO
Phone : 314-399-9226

Email : mwitthaus@investstl.org