MICHELE VANDERSTREET
Family Friend
Chief of Community Outreach, Legal Counsel
A tried and true Jersey Girl, Michele is an attorney at McCarter & English, LLP in Newark, where she has spent the majority of her career after clerking at the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and a brief stint as in-house counsel for Wachovia Bank before it became Wells Fargo.
Although Michele works on various large scale commercial litigation matters, her passion is doing pro-bono work to help obtain asylum for members of the LGBTQ community who have suffered persecution and discrimination in their countries of origin.
The majority of Michele's time is spent with her husband, Rob, and their daughters. While she relishes their family time at the beach in LBI, quite frankly she is most often operating as one of the many Long Hill "Mom-Uber" drivers with a car full of kids heading to softball, soccer, basketball, and girl scouts. In her "former life" before becoming a mother, Michele was a force to be reckoned with at a Texas Hold 'Em poker table and she still enjoys the rare opportunities to enjoy some Black Jack in Atlantic City.
When she isn't listening to Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen, Michele loves to read, craft, attempt (usually fail) to bake, and spend time with friends and family.
After losing both her parents to cancer and seeing first-hand the anguish and devastation it can cause, Michele could not be happier to have joined the WITH Grace Initiative team to do whatever is possible to heighten awareness, augment research, and provide whatever support and assistance possible to the warrior families who are facing the most difficult time in their lives while they fight for survival and do their part to kick cancer's ass!