Michael T. HermaN (He/Him/His)

Chief Executive Officer

I am what you call a born and bred Chicagoan. I grew up on the Southwest side of the city in an Irish, German, Lithuanian, and Catholic family. At the time, I thought I had a small family with only two brothers and two sisters. After raising her kids, my mother went back to work doing Development. It runs in the family. I am blessed to still have my 80-year-old mother still in my life. She lives in the house where I grew up. My father worked for an insurance company, a job he took to support his family and worked for some 40 years but one that he never liked. He taught me the importance of loving what you do for work. I lost my father to cancer in 2012.

The three biggest values in my home growing up were family, faith, and education. We lived directly across the street from the church where I went to elementary school. At a young age, I entered the seminary attending Quigley South Seminary located at 79th and Western. I was a good student but much more enjoyed all the extracurricular activities including soccer, student government, band, and the school plays. No surprise that my dramatic phase began early in life. I attended college seminary at Loyola University where I received a degree in Computer Programming and a minor in philosophy. Those of you who know my incompetence on computers will laugh at my degree. It was a long time ago.

I went on in the seminary to get my masters of Divinity before being ordained a catholic priest in 1989. For 17 years, I served as a priest in the Hispanic communities of Chicago. I loved my priesthood but eventually left active ministry to live as an out gay man. After leaving the priesthood, I joined Chicago House as the Chief Development Officer. In many ways, Chicago House allowed me to continue my ministry by working with the LGBTQ communities and those most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. After my time as CDO at Chicago House, I secured a role as VP of Philanthropy at Kohl Children’s Museum. I valued my 6 years at the museum and am now thrilled to have began my work as Chief Executive Officer at Chicago House in July 2019.

I met my husband, Bernard, 23 years ago playing volleyball. During those years, we have gotten married three times with the third one finally recognized as a legal marriage. We adopted our son from the Philippines. Although much has changed in this world during my life, the values of family, faith, and education remain constant for me.