Last November, Mary Alyce Hood was elected to a six-year term on the bench in the 7th Circuit Court in Genesee County. The seat was vacated by Judge Celeste Bell due to Michigan’s constitutionally imposed age limits for judicial officeholders.
On January 23, Hood’s investiture was held at St. Michael’s Conference Center where she took the Oath of Office in the presence of many community members, her fellow judges, family and friends.
A lifelong Genesee County resident and graduate of Flint Northern High School, University of Michigan-Flint and Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Hood has been licensed to practice law for 34 years. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and Genesee County Bar Association.
For most of her career – 22 years – Hood decided family law cases as an attorney referee in the 7th Circuit Court’s Family Division. She is the first judge to be elected to the bench in Genesee County from the Family Division Circuit Court Referee position and the first African American lawyer elected to a non-incumbent seat on the 7th Circuit Court.
Prior to that role, she worked as a magistrate for the 68th District Court in Flint, as an assistant city attorney for Highland Park, a legal aid attorney, and as a family law and criminal defense attorney. She served under four chief judges.
Having been a public servant of the Flint community for decades, much could be written about Judge Hood’s career achievements; but what is the skill she would most like to learn? What is her go-to comfort food? Read on for these answers and more!
1. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Early-rising is part of my recipe for success, and it has become an unbreakable habit that I acquired in childhood. I was raised to believe the “early bird gets the worm” and mornings are when I am most alive and energized. I love the quiet of the morning, the opportunity to meditate and prepare for the day ahead.
2. What do you listen to when you are driving in the car?
One fact about me is that I fully embrace the proverb “variety is the spice of life.” So, I listen to various channels on SiriusXM, such as “POTUS Politics”, “Heart & Soul” and “Kirk Franklin’s Praise.” I also occasionally listen to comedy shows.
3. What skill would you most like to learn?
I would most like to relearn how to play musical instruments I played as a child: The piano, and a clarinet I have had since 5th grade.
Success will require your undivided attention. It will require you to be alone, often. It will require you to wait for things you feel you need immediately. It may require you to leave some people you love behind. Succeed anyway.
The Honorable Mary Hood
4. What would you say is your go-to comfort food?
My ultimate comfort food is soul food, especially fried chicken wings and collard greens.
5. What has been the best thing about your career?
Of the 34 years I have been a lawyer, I have been a public servant for approximately 32 of them. The best thing about being a public servant is having the opportunity to be selfless in my job and to help others navigate some of the worst days of their lives.
Making rulings and ordering services competently, efficiently and respectfully assures litigants that even if the result isn’t what they had hoped for, the process was fair and they had their “day in court.” There’s no greater joy than knowing I have made a career of helping others and that someone else’s life is better because of a decision I made.
I have also enjoyed being a trailblazer and realizing how, in retrospect, my life and career experiences came together to this end. I was the first Black female lawyer appointed to serve as a magistrate for the 68th District Court, the first Black attorney referee appointed to the Circuit Court/Friend of the Court, and the first Black lawyer elected to a nonincumbent seat on the 7th Circuit Court – an accomplishment most of Genesee County’s legal community deemed impossible.
6. Who is your hero and why?
While I was a “daddy’s girl”, my mother was my hero – she died in 2001. She wanted her children to succeed, and it was evident in everything she did. I was raised in a two-parent household and my parents, who both worked, were married for more than 40 years when my mother passed away. However, I watched her work tirelessly for her family. She enrolled in Flint Junior College (now Mott Community College) where she began her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in early education. My mother attended college, completed student teaching and graduated from the University of Michigan-Flint while raising four young children, and after two of her six children were emancipated. She was a teacher for Flint Community Schools, active in a sorority, she took my siblings and me to church every Sunday, enrolled us in summer camps, she took us on vacations and short trips, took us to the library regularly, took us shopping for clothes, did the grocery shopping, cooked, cleaned, took us to swim lessons at the YWCA, she did crafts with us – you name it, my mother did it and it was all for her children. In short, my mother overcame an impoverished childhood and showed her five daughters how to be strong, successful women.
7. What are you most excited about in your life right now?
Being the mother and grandmother of adults who are thriving in their personal lives, I am now most excited about having the opportunity to dig into my career like never before, while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
