Mary Michaels was a junior in high school when her family moved to Sault Ste. Marie in the summer of 1976. She went to college at Northern Michigan University and then transferred to Lake Superior State University to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Michaels worked at Tendercare nursing home, which was then called “Provincial House,” while completing her nursing degree. Upon graduation, she worked at War Memorial Hospital until she was recruited to work at the Chippewa County Health Department as a home health and hospice nurse. After a 26-year career, Michaels retired from the health department and became a school nurse for the Sault Area Public Schools.

Married shortly out of high school, Michaels was unaware that her first husband was both an alcoholic and drug abuser. They had two daughters and encountered the emotional pain addiction inflicted on the entire family. Michaels left that marriage, which was a difficult choice since she was Catholic and the first and only one in her family to ever divorce. Her ex-husband married and divorced again, and ended up passing away in a VA center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 60 years of age. He was on suboxone at the time. Michaels has admired FAN from the first time she heard about the organization. Before she became a board member, FAN helped Michaels with elementary health fairs at the schools, educating young people about substance abuse.