'What will it take to break down the walls?' Michele Young has spent her life tackling obstacles.

Ask Michele Young to name her greatest accomplishment, and she immediately starts talking about other people’s accomplishments.

She raves about Tyra Patterson, a prominent criminal justice reform advocate whom Young helped get out of prison. 

She gushes about Sedrick Denson, who is a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. Young met Denson when he was just 20 years old and is one of his mentors. “I consider him family,” she said.

But Young is most effusive about her husband and five children, ages 18 to 27. They are kind and gentle and thoughtful, she said, and they will change the world for good.

“That’s an easy one for me,” she said. “I have just a lovely family life.”

Young, one of The Enquirer’s 2020 Women of the Year, is the kind of woman who stands behind other people, propping them up and pushing them forward. She’s an attorney who seems to do more pro bono than paid. She leads anti-bullying and don’t-text-and-drive efforts. She runs political campaigns for free for women and minority candidates. She’s a convener who tries to span the gap between people of different races, religions and ideologies.

“In our community, Michele can be counted on whenever there is a need,” wrote Sandy Kaltman and Jan Armstrong Cobb in their form nominating Young for the Women of the Year award. “If she cannot solve the problem, she will find someone who can. To her, every life counts, and no problem is too small or too great to undertake. Each day, she tries to open doors and make life a little kinder for others.”

Forging her own path

Young was born in Brooklyn, New York, the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants and the daughter of two teachers.

She studied communications in college, but once she got to the workforce, she found herself dragged down by all the usual problems that plague women. Despite her qualifications, she was relegated to menial tasks that had nothing to do with her experience or education.

And time after time, she faced sexual harassment and outright propositions from her bosses.

“If you look at what I’m doing now, a lot of the vision that I have comes from my frustration of my early 20s when I realized that I would never be seen for who I was,” Young said. “Everything that I did came down to my fabulous typing. Not my writing, not my research, not my talents or skills. It came down to, I was a young blonde. A middle class blonde with good typing skills.”

Young decided her ticket out was to earn a law degree. As an attorney, she could forge her own path. Then, she could turn around and help others.  

“I pledged to myself that as a lawyer, I would find ways to stand up for people who were being wronged,” she said. “And I have.”

Professionally, Young is working on a few cases dear to her heart right now. One involves Sherry Chen, a scientist who was wrongly accused of espionage and fired from her job. Another involves Gabriel Taye, an 8-year-old Cincinnati Public Schools student who killed himself after he was bullied at school. But it’s not just those high-profile cases that matter to Young. Even the tiniest case, if it makes a difference in one person’s life, is worth the effort, she said.

“I tend to look at the person and say, ‘What if it was me?’ And then I say, ‘What will it take to break down the walls so they can get where they want to go?’” she said. 

Young’s life took a turn in 2018 when, on Yom Kippur, she was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. Doctors told her she might not have more than a year to live.

She lost her hair and she lost her voice, but even at her sickest, she kept working and fighting for others. She didn’t tell many people about her diagnosis, because she didn’t want them to treat her differently. She didn’t want to be sidelined.

Young is in complete remission now, and she’s looking at this as her 10th inning – extra time to make a difference. She is still fighting for her clients; for minority and women politicians, particularly mothers; and for better breast cancer care for women, starting with better laws regarding insurance companies and screening coverage.

This year, the Yom Kippur observation was virtual. Young read Psalm 23, which talks about how God walks with and restores his sheep. She was crying, thinking about her cancer diagnosis exactly two years earlier and thanking God for her own restoration.

Then the phone rang. It was Eddie Tyner, The Enquirer’s Midwest Region president, telling Young she was a Woman of the Year.

“I said, ‘Huh, that’s a sign,’ ” Young said. “’We’ll see how much good we can do this year.’”

About Michele Young

Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York

Current residence: Indian Hill

Family: Husband, Greg, and children Amanda, 27, Zach, 25, Jake and Josh, 22, and Chase, 18

 Education: McGill University, B.A. in English-Communications and North American Studies; Georgetown Law Center, J.D.

Occupation: Attorney

WHAT SHE SAYS:

What inspires you to give back? “It comes from my soul. My parents were role models, and I’ve been volunteering since I was a child. Whenever I could, I tried to give back to my community any way I could with whatever I had. Volunteering is just a way of life to me. I don’t call it volunteering – I call it life.”

What need in the community would you like to see addressed? “I’m hoping to really help make Cincinnati into one of the most welcoming cities on planet Earth. That’s been a life mission of mine. The real hope is to make a difference so that more people are noticed, not marginalized, have a seat at the table and are valued. Each life is important. Each person – their set of dreams and hopes are important. Why aren’t we all just looking at each person and discovering what makes that person special?”

Who most influenced or inspired you to care about others? “I can remember when Bobby Kennedy ran (for president). I can still remember him reaching across to touch the hand of everyone in the crowd and to talk about, why can’t we have opportunities for everyone? I could tell he actually felt everyone’s heart. It was real. And I think from that moment in my childhood, I’ve always wanted to carry that torch and be one of the people who works to bring us all together and to make each person feel truly valued."