Michael McConnell

Michael McConnell has served as regional director of the Great Lakes region since 1990. The AFSC Chicago regional office coordinates social and economic justice projects in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Richmond, Indiana and Dayton, Ohio.

Michael spearheaded conceptualization and planning that led to the creation of a multi-sensory exhibit Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War in Iraq. Created in Chicago and first displayed in that city’s Federal Plaza in January 2004, Eyes Wide Open now features more than 800 pairs of combat boots and a 24-foot ‘wall’ of names and incidents of Iraqi civilian deaths. The exhibit is on tour with stops in New England, West Virginia and New York City, NY.

Before joining AFSC, Michael was the coordinator of the Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America, coordinated organizing of the U.S. Sanctuary Movement and was co-founder of Chrysalis Learning Community, an alternative high school. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and served as associate minister of Wellington Ave United Church of Christ.

Co-author of Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad (1986), Dangerous Memories (1992) and Lost Voices: A Multicultural History of the United States.