Vice President of Philanthropy
Dr. Michelle Bair is a nonprofit executive dedicated to improving the lives and well-being of others through philanthropy and partnerships. She joined the Human Immunome Project (HIP) as Vice President of Philanthropy in July 2024. She’s thrilled to join HIP, where she will oversee resource development strategies to support HIP’s mission to decode and model the immune system. Michelle believes HIP’s work will profoundly impact our understanding of disease and transform how we approach immune-based precision medicine. Joining an organization like HIP is, to her, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—as audacious as seeking to map the human genome—to improve health worldwide.
Before joining the Human Immunome Project, Michelle served as the President and CEO of Faith In Practice. Faith In Practice is a nonprofit organization that provides vital acute and surgical care to underserved men, women, and children in Guatemala. Through deep partnerships with Guatemalan-based hospitals, business leaders, and local community volunteers, Faith In Practice delivered acute and surgical care to 21,000 patients each year. Michelle’s focus was on cultivating relationships among global stakeholders, while being responsible for the overall vision and health of the organization.
Prior to her role at Faith In Practice, Michelle served as director of development at the Memorial Hermann Foundation for nine years. The Memorial Hermann Foundation is the philanthropic support organization for the Memorial Hermann Health System, the largest nonprofit health system in southeast Texas. She managed a portfolio of major giving prospects, held previous positions as the annual fund, planned giving, and operations executive within the Foundation. In this role, she worked closely with renowned physician researchers from Memorial Hermann and the affiliated partner, The University of Texas Health Science Center.
A great point of pride for Michelle is her volunteer work with Étoile Academy Charter School, a K-8 network of schools located in Southwest Houston. She had the opportunity to join as a founding member of the Board before the school had a building or students. Étoile enthusiastically opened its doors in 2018 with less than 100 children, persevered and grew through COVID, and continues to provide a private school-like experience and rigorous academic curriculum to all Étoile students.
As the Board Chair of Étoile Academy Charter School, she has raised more than $30 million dollars and helped the school grow from 75 students to 900 students. She led the strategic planning process and ensured the Board had a clear vision for the next ten years of growth and improvement. She was instrumental in securing the capital to purchase a new facility for a second campus, which opened in August 2023.
The daughter of two navy nurses, Michelle originally went to college to study nursing. While at the University of Florida, she was awarded scholarships to remain in the music program and chose to continue her studies with an arts and nonprofit focus. Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida as well as a master’s and a doctoral degree from Texas Tech University.