Your host Richele O'Connor sits down with Ohio’s movers, shakers, and change-makers to uncover the personal stories behind public service.

She is joined by Michaela Burriss, Policy Director for the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, accomplished former Upper Arlington City Council member, and now a Democratic candidate for State Representative.

Raised in Northeast Ohio by a single, immigrant mother and experiencing hardships like housing insecurity, Michaela Burriss shares how her resilience was forged from childhood adversity, a supportive yet tough environment, and a competitive edge honed as a Division I athlete. Throughout the conversation, she and Richele O'Connor dig into Michaela’s passion for advocating for the underdog, her journey through law school and public service, her leadership in community initiatives (like the Burriss Backyard Speaker Series responding to the Dobbs decision), and her commitment to criminal justice reform.

Together, they also discuss the ongoing challenges facing Ohio’s public schools, the importance of authentic leadership, the realities of working in a politically divided statehouse, and the power of organizing at the local level. Whether it’s fighting for education equity, confronting the ripple effects of controversial court decisions, or building genuine community connections, Michaela Burriss exemplifies what it means to turn hardship into hope—and action.

Stay tuned as we unpack her vision for Ohio, her unapologetic approach to leadership, and why she believes now is the time for every Ohioan to get involved and make their voices heard.

Moments

00:00 "Acclaimed Legal and Civic Leader"

03:26 "It Could Be Worse"

06:42 "Putting People Over Politics"

09:46 "Backyard Series for Reproductive Rights"

13:51 Youngstown Schools Charter Takeover

16:55 "Tough on Crime Scapegoating"

20:52 Authenticity Through Cultural Directness

24:37 Balancing Change and Commitment

29:05 Democratic Leadership in Challenging Times

30:15 Higher Education & Workers' Rights

Copyright 2025 Just The Facts Ohio

Mentioned in this episode:

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency or company.

This is Richele o', Connor, your host and we are thrilled to welcome a friend and my neighbor, Misha Ayla.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thanks for joining us. You bet. You bet. As is customary in our podcast, we will start by listing pertinent facts. The facts that we believe help us to tell your story. Mish grew up in Northeast Ohio, raised by a single mother who was also an immigrant from Germany in impoverished environment. And you experienced being unhoused. After being a high school All American in swimming, you attended Ohio University on a full scholarship.

You then earned your Juris Doctorate at Capitol Law and you interned with the legal counsel at the State House. And so it was natural that a few years later, you became a Statehouse staffer. You've earned a few awards along the way, keeping good company with Supreme Court Justice Maureen o', Connor, no relation to moi, where you are co recipient of the League of Women Voters 2023 Public Service Award. You also got a leadership award in the 20 under 40 club, which rewards young and promising young community members. And for two straight years, you were nominated as the best Democratic state House staffer. You also, along the way, accomplished a long list of community involvement activities, including coaching, swimming.

Wellington High School. Yes.

Go Bears. Go Bears. Where your team won the state championship. You love to hear it, champions. Yes. You're a member of the naacp and you're a member of Stonewall Columbus. And somewhere in time, you also had a small business with your husband where you did video production. Your frustration with the Dobbs decision, also known as the overturning of Roe v.

Wade, resulted in the creation of the Burris Backyard speaker series, of which I've attended. Had a really, really good time.

Oh, good.

In various ways, you've had an ancillary role in several legislative accomplishments. In your various roles as a city council member, a staffer, an advocate and policy director, you can best be summarized as stating that your interests and your motivations lie in helping the underdog. And that leads us to your current position as Policy Director for Ohio justice and Policy center and whose main focus is to advocate for the incarcerated and for criminal justice reform. Could you affirm that these facts are true?

I affirm the facts. Richele.

Sounds like we're in court. So I always wanted to be a lawyer and I became a teacher because a teacher can play many roles. And teaching is a profession that leads to all other professions.

It is the heart of a democracy in a civil society.

Amen. Yeah, we're going to talk about that. Don't worry.

Oh, you bet. We better.

So the picture in my mind is painted of a girl, a daughter of an immigrant who really defines the word and the quality resilience. Where do you think this resilience comes from?

I would say culturally it comes from my mother. Whenever things were tough, whenever we were going through a hard time, her note to us was, well, it could be worse. And so it sounds hard to imagine that you and your sisters could be sitting in a circle holding hands, crying, and you're not sure where we're going to sleep the next day. And here comes Richele with just a consistent positive mental attitude. She always was focused on the future and hopeful for our future. And she would just constantly remind us it could be worse. And so we laughed a lot. And what laughed there was the best medicine.

Yes, we laughed a lot when things were tough. And I would say throughout my life that perspective has been very valuable. When things get hard, I tend to laugh. I would also say I'm a bit of a stereotypical, red headed style, six foot tall, middle child.

And so go middle children. I'm a middle child. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And I'm competitive. And so tell me I can't do something. Tell me it's hard. And you don't become a full scholarship division one athlete without having sort of that attitude. Oh, I'll show you. And so it would be a combination of the two.

I think you probably hold a lot in common with Richele Acton. When I hear her talk about her background. You probably connected on that a bit.

I did. And I felt really drawn to her as a candidate for office for those reasons. And we're living in a really unique political time. We have, yeah, we have a reality TV star and a failed businessman as the President of the United States. And I worry sometimes that voters have lost so much faith in government and in politicians that they are looking for anything to help save them from suffering and from hardship. And so flashy celebrity is started to really be pervasive. And I don't know if that's limited to just the President. And so Amy Acton.

When I see Amy Acton, I think of a candidate who is incapable of hurting me and would never do it deliberately, deliberately. I believe that she is somebody who is going to consistently advocate for the underdog. I find her to be resilient.

Thread. Yes.

Yes. And I feel drawn to her because I believe, like me, her calling for public service comes from that place of been through something really, really hard. And now it's time to make sure, while we're on the other end of it, that we're not going to let other neighbors go through the hard things we went through.

And now it's time to make sure, while we're on the other end of it, that we're not going to let other neighbors go through the hard things we went through. And so Richele.

I completely agree with you. We are living in a time where our humanity really needs to be stretched. You know, we, we're seeing this division, this idea that political parties are teams, that we can't be presented with new information about a political candidate or within the party system. You just need to support your team, even if your team abandons your values. Yeah, I, I don't believe in hypocrisy in politics. We should be putting people first. And if government truly is a body for public servicing civil service as it was for me and my family when we were on food stamps, then we really need to claw back to caring about people and making this about our care and compassion for people.

I just finished Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, the Unfinished Love Story, and it's a lot about her husband's work in the Great Society. And, you know, I think we're living the opposite of the Great Society right now, and we need to get back to, to, to be in the Great Society. All right, let's move along to Richele's speaker series. And I know you're so proud of that. I am very proud of you. That's your big baby. Yeah. Yeah.

We have many Ohioans, particularly women, who see Dobbs as a serious threat to their own health and well being. And I know you could go on forever about this because you have a lot of personal experience. Would you like to elaborate on why this is so important to you?

Yeah. You know, I found out pretty early on, well before I wanted to become a mother, that I would struggle with infertility because I was an egg donor for my brother and his husband. And we were very lucky that we could get help from a family member to go through ivf and that that resulted in only one embryo. And when we were ready to start our family, we realized, you know, we had never tried to naturally conceive. So let's give it a go. Giving it a go resulted in two miscarriages. And those were painful, awful experiences. I feel Very lucky that I eventually was able to become pregnant.

But I went into labor four weeks early, very unexpected. And it was a fast labor where I did not have pain meds. And so no epidural.

Ouch.

Ouch is an understatement. I. I experienced child labor and the experience of pregnancy from the perspective of how life threatening and uncomfortable it is. I was already somebody who supported reproductive health and reproductive health access. But the moment I became a mother, had those personal lived experiences and was raising a daughter, it became intolerable to me that we were not doing more. The regression of access to reproductive health. I didn't have patience anymore for the rolling back. And then, of course, Dobbs happens before my daughter even turns one.

And so the Backyard Series was born out of an event that I did for then governor candidate Nan Whaley. We had a house party for her. Over 100 women came. And after we did our remarks, I was walking around in the audience and so many women were saying, I just don't know how we got here. And my initial reaction was anger, honestly, because they've been chipping away at reproductive health access ever since the Roe decision. But when I sat with the fact that people really needed to learn why and somebody had to fill that void in our community, you know, Patrick and I turned to each other and just said, what more can we do in this, in this trying time so that we can always say to our daughter that when, you know, government came for us, when they came for you and your quality of life, we stood up. And so the Burris Backyard series was to educate our neighbors on how we got here. And we've done it every year for four years.

Over 450 people have registered.

It's so commendable.

Thank you, Richele.

Yeah. And I, I hope to get there more this next summer.

I'm really glad that you, Richele, enjoyed it.

Most people, Richele, do right around the corner and so easy.

Yeah.

Now is a good time to mention that in addition to all your other previous accomplishments, you are now adding to that robust list candidate for state representative. Woo hoo.

Yay for Burris.

As my neighbor, you would be my representative. And this is for the seat, Right. That Alison Russo vacates due to term limits.

It is true, yes.

Okay. So understanding your motivation to help the underdog, that's easy enough. But what is it that you think is the most realistic change that you might accomplish as elected?

You know the realities of being a Democrat in a state house and state where we haven't had a real functioning democracy in a long time. Let's be honest, because of gerrymandering. I'd say 2010 was the last time Ohio had a functioning democracy. I think there are realities to what it means to getting bills done and having to work alongside your Republican counterparts. That's something I actually do already in my current role as the policy director for the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. So we can't again, we have to stay true to our humanity, our belief in love, in people. We cannot assume just because somebody's on the supposed other team that we can't have conversations or find alignment. I believe in that.

But in terms of what I am most excited to prioritize when you are first elected, what does the state legislature do? We're the power of the purse. We pass a state operating budget in that first six months. And what has Ohio consistently failed to do? Fully fund our public schools? I mentioned before, I'm a food stamp kid, right? But I also ate two free meals a day at a public school kit. Being an athlete, my public school was a safe place when home wasn't. Children everywhere, no matter where they live, deserve that. It feels absolutely immoral to me. The inequity I see when I look at Upper Arlington's high school.

Oh my gosh.

And I think about Paynesville, Riverside, where I went to high school. It is the same building that my parent went to that my siblings who are 10, 15 years older than me, went to. It's the same building I graduated in 2004 and they still don't have air conditioning. And now let's think about all these horrible cuts to Columbus city schools. Yeah, the state legislature, specifically state House Republicans are failing our kids on purpose. And it is by design. They want to privatize education. They want to.

And I've seen it. You mentioned my state House rules. I worked as a legislative aide for the members that represented Youngstown. Youngstown in the public education space was the test subject for the Academic Distress Commission. What was the Academic Distress Commission? Well, John Kasich said it best. He cornered Michelle Lepore Hagan at an event and said, I want to turn Youngstown city schools into a charter. And sure enough, they took a bill that was meant to provide wraparound care for kids and in the dead of night, with more than 60 plus pages, turned it into a bill that would convert Youngstown public schools over time into a charter. What it did immediately, though, was it took away all governing power away from a duly elected school board, took any functioning power away from a superintendent, and then installed a CEO who had complete unilateral control over all taxpayer dollars and the running of that school district.

We know what happens when you have no true oversight over public spending. And it happened in Youngstown. This CEO mismanaged money spent public taxpayer dollars not on students and in the classroom, but on cushy administrative jobs. And. And sure enough, the FBI eventually raided Youngstown City School District. And when the teachers union went to negotiate their next contract, the academic distress commission language got in the way, and it resulted in one of the longest teachers union strikes that we have had in our state's history.

What years was this?

This just happened just now? Yeah.

This year.

August of 23. Was the Richele.

August in 23. Okay.

When kids came back.

Wow.

Very recent. The teacher strike happened.

Wow.

And we don't hear about that here in central Ohio.

Right.

Because there's just so much coming at us.

Yeah.

But it is important for us to see that they're not just going to introduce a bill that immediately overnight converts all of our public schools into charters. They're going to systematically defund them. Systematically defund them. And then repurpose public taxpayer money for private and charter schools.

Even though the Ed Choice grant has been, you know, deemed unconstitutional, just like.

The de Rolf decision since the 90s.

We just have a history of just not listening to what the Supreme Court says. Gerrymandering.

Oh, yeah. The lawlessness. Yes, the lawlessness, the lawlessness, the corruption. These are not people who care about people.

No. I would think that with your work with the incarcerated and your current role, that that would be one of your goals. And I know Richele Humphrey talked about being able to accomplish some of that. Do you see yourself maybe joining forces with Richele?

Oh, absolutely, and unquestionably. And I feel a unique obligation to do that because communities that I live in are the ones that are scapegoated in the name of being tough on crime. You know, everybody wants to scare white women out of doing things that we know from history have not benefited our communities. The war on drugs was a failure. And we have evolved as a society in our understanding around substance abuse and addiction.

Yeah.

We should be funding diversion programs instead of throwing people in prison. And we need to be clear about something. Prisons cost money. They cost a lot of money. But if we fully funded public schools, if we fully funded health care and mental health access, if we were focusing on the intersection of trauma and public safety.

Absolutely.

Education, preventative measures, which we should do. It's smart government.

Yeah. Your zip code should not determine the education nor the health care. You Receive.

Couldn't agree more. And I've lived what it means to be a kid and sort of see how, hey, I. I'm getting a much different shake than my buddies. No child should have that difference of an experience. It is our role. It takes a village. We are not all bootstrapping. It is not all personal responsibility.

It takes all of us indeed.

You know, you ruined my part where I was going to say you're going to be swimming upstream as a former swimming ATH in the super majority. Oh, well, maybe you won't have to swim upstream. Maybe we can get some changes done.

We have to believe in that.

Yeah, we do.

We cannot lose hope. No, we cannot. And we cannot take this lying down either. You know, there seems to be this misunderstanding that because I would be willing, or any Democrat in the legislature would be willing to work across the aisle to get something done, that that means we have to, you know, hold back our punches. No. Nope, nope, nope.

Now we got to call them out. And. Yeah, this getting stuff done in the middle of the night, like what they did with the strs.

Oh, yeah.

We had Rudy Fichtenbaum here and we talked about that and. Yeah, and we're still waiting to hear the results from the trial. It was supposed to be done before Thanksgiving. Yeah. So that will be interesting to see what happens.

Yeah.

Well, you're obviously a vibrant, bright and outspoken young lady, Richele.

Thank you.

With that comes, unfortunately, people with whom you may have ruffled their feathers and alienated along the way. So what would your critics say about you? And secondly, how would you confront those criticisms?

You know, one of the things that was a unique journey for me as a first time candidate was perhaps naively. I believed that if I was really vulnerable about my lived experiences, about my childhood, if I was willing to be open and honest about why I serve my community, Richele, surely everyone would see that I'm not somebody who wants to be involved for politics sake, that I'm somebody who just genuinely and fundamentally really wants to give back.

I think that is why I can be so blunt and direct. I mean, I'm German culturally. Right. So culturally we say it like it is, and that's perceived as love. So I know that that's not the case for everybody. But through my own personal journey, what I have learned is that I like myself a hell of a lot more when I do what I believe is the morally right thing to do. People don't want folks who talk out of both sides of their mouth who say, I believe this and then do that, who are a different person in a private room or in a private conversation than they are in public. I don't like that.

So I have to believe other people do not either. And so I'm not gonna be everything for everyone. I'm not gonna be. I can't be. I'm not gonna try. But that does not mean that if I disagree with you, if we fall on different sides of an issue, then I don't leave the door open for the next time. You know, Again, you're not gonna hold a grudge. I can't.

Like I said, could be worse. We gotta move on. We gotta be on to the next thing. I. And not somebody that can live with that. And also, whatever that disagreement is is not as bad as what I've already been through in my life. So how could this. It just doesn't land on me in the same way that it may for others.

So we often don't see a lot of politicians that speak their mind in an authentic way. We see calculated decision making, people trying to guess what may or may not be popular.

Got to take a poll first.

Exactly right. Exactly right. Voters can feel it. Voters can feel it.

Yeah.

I'm a lot more rough and tumble than many people sort of expect when they hear the words Upper Arlington. Youngest woman ever elected to Upper Arlington City council.

I should have said that. Yeah, that's quite an accomplishment.

But my neighbors know that.

And they know you.

And they were. And they trusted me with a very important job. And so I'm going to move forward from the place that if my community and my neighbors want me to have an important role, that I'm going to do it being fully myself, not some pretend version that they Too could criticize, because again, at the end of the day, I got to like myself.

And how much credit do you want to take for that beautiful recreation center? Dan and I go, oh, yeah. Dan and I go at least twice a week. We took the grandkids there, and I think Trip might try to have his birthday party there.

Oh, that makes me so happy.

We played pickleball with the grandkids.

Oh, that makes me so happy.

It's wonderful.

Thank you for saying that.

Oh, you bet. I know that was controversial. Oh, you know, I think it's been a wonderful, wonderful thing for our community.

Thank you for saying that. And I will say, you know, as a public servant, a personal accomplishment for me, and why I say that is I was pregnant with Sasha when we were negotiating a TIF agreement for the potential redevelopment of that site.

TIFF agreement.

Oh, gosh. Tax incremental finance.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, we'll go down quite the rabbit hole.

We don't need to go there.

Yeah. So, you know, people naturally, when they are. When some. When change happens, when redevelopment happens, that can be uncomfortable. I knew that and I respected that. So I wanted to meet my neighbors where they were. So imagine peak of morning sickness, putting myself on mute, throwing up while listening to people on the phone for eight hours on a Saturday because. And I'm still working a full time job at the State House, on top of doing city council, on top of it. I mean, when I see my name there and I know my daughter can see my name on that building.

Oh, wow.

You know, I was very, very pregnant. Patrick's birthday was election day, and so I think fondly of Zasha and that experience. And again, I talked a lot about how I hated being pregnant. That was very hard. And doing something that was very hard on my body, very hard on me, while pushing through to help deliver something really important to our community. Oh, Richele.

Yeah, that's special.

You know, I wanted her at the ribbon cutting. I wanted her at the groundbreaking because she was with me when I was doing that really tough work. In government, we are often making generational investment, and it's not as tangible as a community center. You know, it's a sidewalk. Local government's really cool in that way. You know, I can drive down Fishinger and see this really beautiful bike path or, you know, Lane Avenue. So, yeah, local government can sometimes feel more tangible.

Yeah.

But, man, that community center, it's. I worked so hard. I'm not the only one. Sure. A lot of people did.

Yeah.

But I did, too. And.

Yeah.

Oh, it Makes me so proud. I'm so happy for all of us.

It should be. Yeah, we love it. Absolutely love it. When we had coffee the other day, we were talking about a primary.

Yeah.

And you didn't shy away from the fact that you might have some competition. And, and you. And you're like, you know, a primary is good for our party. And I thought that was a very unselfish thing for you to say.

Oh, thanks for saying that.

The way you said it was very affirming, you know.

Yeah. And I believe it. We have to produce the best candidates. We have to. Untested candidates when they go before voters may not always produce the best outcome in a general election or make them as strong as they need to and as resilient as they need to when they govern in really tough environments. When we saw the makeup of the district, we knew that it would be decided within a Democratic Party primary. And when Patrick and I talked about that at home and what that meant, you know, it's easy for me to be like, oh, you want to pass? Right to work? Over my dead body. When I'm talking about Republicans and the Republican concerted effort to attack working people and collective bargaining.

That comes easier than people who I'm going to agree with 95% of the time and running against somebody who I would otherwise likely vote for. But we just had to accept that. Yeah. Somebody that we really care about, somebody who agrees with me on a lot of things may also run, too, and it is in the hands of the voters. Be ourselves, run a tough race, do the work. I am a hard working person. I'm going to be as accessible as I can to as many voters as I can because I really like people and I have an intellectual curiosity around people.

So.

So I'm not going to be somebody who you only see in a candidate debate. I'm going to show up at your door and I'm going to knock on it. I'm going to call you up out of the blue. I am going to have events in my backyard that are free to attend. I'm not afraid of confrontation in the way that other people think because again, how I was raised was, oh, you would want me to tell you that you're doing this wrong. Right. I don't mind a voter telling me that they think I should do something. I'm Richele.

You're going to listen and you're going to try to improve.

I try, yeah. Growth, mindset.

Yeah, very much. Very much. Well, hard working, underdog. Those are the words that I think describe you best.

Thank You.

Yeah, I wish you luck. And I wonder if you have anything else that you don't think we've covered that you'd like to add.

Ooh, you know, that's a great question. What? I would say that, you know, if we're talking specifically about the race for state representative, we've talked a lot about what it means to be in that role when you're entering the state House environment. But what we haven't talked about is what it means to be a Democrat in a safe Democratic seat when Democrats are losing statewide elections. I believe that the value of this role and the person that we elect to it is to organize in our communities and to have the heart of an organizer who wants to build community connections. I've done that in Upper Arlington, not just as an elected official, but with things like my backyard speaker series. This district includes Ohio State University. When you look at voter registrations and active participation in our democracy among students, it is abysmal. Students should not feel that disconnected from government, especially when this state legislature just passed Senate Bill 1.

One of the biggest attacks on higher education, censoring freedom, absolutely. But a direct attack on collective bargaining and organizing in higher ed. A direct attack on workers rights and academic freedom. Who is going to be a consistent presence on campus, meeting students where they're at, advocating for them, not just on the issue of higher education, but on housing conditions on campus and their lease agreements and their interactions with landlords, making sure that they have access to a good paying job when they graduate. I am not going to have any part time jobs. I am going to be fully devoted to this role. Fully devoted and a consistent, accessible presence in the district. The Democratic Party needs that in this seat.

So even if I am not successful, what I would say to any voter in Ohio's 7th district is that we need to think very big picture about the state of Ohio and what it means to bring people into the Democratic Party and who we believe is best positioned to do that. I'm willing to put in the work. I am willing to put in that work. I'm excited about the prospect.

I don't doubt you for one second. I don't doubt it.

I revel in the idea of doing that work. And so I would say to anyone who chooses to run, demonstrate that same level of commitment because Democrats have work to do.

Yep. Game on.

Game on. Let's go.

Go Bucks and game on.

Yeah. Yay for Burris. My political committee name is Yay for Burris.

Yay for Burris. Well, it's been a pleasure having you.

Thank you, Richele. Thank you so much.

You bet. Thanks.