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Inspiring Women Magazine May 2023

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Michele Hendrikse Du Bois Editor<br />

FAUSA<br />

2011 FAWCO Conference in Morocco<br />

(above)<br />

Kunu and a young Michele (above right)<br />

Michele's family (middle right)<br />

Michele and husband Remco in The<br />

Dalles, 2011 (bottom right)<br />

Michele and Remco, Belfast 2017 (below)<br />

While our extended family stayed in Kentucky<br />

and Illinois, my parents put their 6-month-old<br />

daughter (me) and Alaskan Malamute in their<br />

Plymouth Fury station wagon and ventured<br />

west. After a short stop in Idaho, where my<br />

sister joined us, we moved on to Bellevue,<br />

Washington and settled in. As a teen and young<br />

adult, I always wanted to travel to Europe, but<br />

my personal budgeting habits never allowed me<br />

to save enough for that type of travel. No one<br />

at that time would have guessed I’d end up<br />

managing multi-million-dollar budgets (and<br />

getting an international corporate award for my<br />

budgeting management skills)! In the spring of<br />

1991, I met a “nice Dutch boy” who was finishing<br />

up his LLM at the University of Washington. I got<br />

my first passport, and that December I took my first trip overseas to meet Remco’s<br />

family and tell them we were getting married the following summer. We have now<br />

enjoyed over 30 years of wonderful adventures together. In addition to living near<br />

Amsterdam and in Munich, we enjoyed two shorter secondments in Singapore and<br />

Istanbul. Between my travels with FAWCO and The FAWCO Foundation and my<br />

husband’s business travel, we had the opportunity to visit many countries.<br />

I love cooking, reading, traveling, hiking/walking, and photography. Having the<br />

opportunity to live in different countries and explore so many different places has been<br />

a true gift.<br />

My husband and I wanted to live in Europe, but we never intended to live in the<br />

Netherlands. Then, in 2005, a unique opportunity arose with my husband’s company,<br />

and we spent the next three and a half years living in a small town just outside of<br />

Amsterdam. While there, I joined the AWC Amsterdam, serving in several roles,<br />

including club president. That is also when I discovered FAWCO and started attending<br />

conferences. One of my favorite roles was as speaker coordinator at the 2008<br />

conference in Seoul, South Korea. After a short return to Washington, we jumped on an<br />

opportunity to go back to Europe and live in Munich. Even before moving, I contacted<br />

the Munich IWC, and on December 31, 2011, our second night in town, we attended our<br />

first social event with the club. At the same time, I became the president of The FAWCO<br />

Foundation. I loved working with The Foundation’s board, attending regional meetings<br />

and gifting Development Grants and Education Awards to inspirational and deserving<br />

FAWCO club charities, their club members, and members’ children. In 2017, after five<br />

years in Munich, we returned to Washington, and I joined FAUSA, where I coordinate the<br />

Seattle Metro/PNW Region, FAUSA in Motion, and the virtual Mah Jongg group.<br />

After two years as Features Coordinator, I am looking forward to moving into the<br />

Editor position and working with the new <strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> team. We are excited to<br />

explore fresh ideas and introduce renewed energy to the production of this beautiful,<br />

informative, and engaging magazine that brings the stories of FAWCO’s inspiring women<br />

alive and delivers them directly to our subscribers’ inboxes.<br />

106 INSPIRING WOMEN INSPIRING WOMEN 107

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