University of Detroit Mercy student Grace Hanke was crowned the winner of Miss Michigan 2026 on Saturday, June 20 at the 87th annual statewide competition in Muskegon.
A Mechanical Engineering student at UDM, Hanke won more than $10,000 in scholarships during the competition and will represent Michigan in the Miss America pageant in September. Hanke, who is from Hazel Park, Michigan, competed as Miss Oakland County during the Miss Michigan competition.
Hanke’s platform during that pageant was “Engineer Her Future,” which focuses on empowering young women and encouraging them to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields.
This past school year, Hanke was selected to participate in U.S. congressional outreach in Washington, D.C., through the Society of Women Engineers. She had the opportunity to engage with Michigan representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Gary Peters to advocate for the future of engineering and STEM education through research, innovation and legislation.
Hanke is the second Miss Michigan pageant winner from the University, following Mercy College’s Pamela Anne Eldred (1969), who would go on to win the Miss America competition in 1970. Kristen Danyal ’12 also was crowned Miss Michigan USA in 2011 while a College of Business Administration student.
MEDIA LINKS
CBS Detroit — Metro Detroit resident crowned as Miss Michigan: “I was just trying to soak it all in”
MLive.com — Miss Michigan 2026 is Miss Oakland County Grace Hanke