Are You A Vanguard? Applications Now Open
Racheal Allen is an Operations Strategist who serves as COO for Marygrove Conservancy, a non-profit that stewards the 53-acre former Marygrove College in Detroit. Allen oversees P-20 partnerships, operations, external engagement, and programs. Allen is also CEO of Operations School, a firm that helps startups and nonprofits build operational capacity.
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Sam Butler served as the Interim Executive Director for Creekside Community Development Corporation before joining Michigan Community Resources in July 2010. Since then, Sam has continued to hone his professional interests in housing program design, participatory planning, and creating alternative models for community revitalization in response to vacant land.
Chase L. Cantrell is the executive director and founder of Building Community Value, a Detroit-based non-profit dedicated to implementing and facilitating real estate development projects in underserved Detroit neighborhoods. In collaboration with academic and community partners, Building Community Value serves as a catalyst for sustainable social and economic development that engages distressed communities in creating impactful, resident-led change.
Ujijji Davis, Brooklyn born, is a landscape architect and urban planner currently living in Detroit. There she focuses on landscape and urban design, master planning, and strategic implementation projects. Her current research regards the importance of arts & culture, race and vernacular landscapes in the urban realm.
Melissa Dittmer is the Director of Architecture + Urban Design at Bedrock Real Estate Services. In her role, Melissa is responsible for leading Bedrock’s internal architecture studio – a collaborative group that completes the research, analysis, programming, and conceptual design of Bedrock’s real estate projects.
Emily Doerr (Collins-Hamel) currently works as a Business Attraction Manager for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. She has previously worked in community and economic development advocacy, grants management, small business development, and local government. In 2011, she founded Hostel Detroit (www.hosteldetroit.com) which has welcomed over 4000 people to explore the Motor City for themselves.
Kimberly Dowdell’s overarching professional mission is to improve the quality of life for people living in cities. She is pursuing this mission through her work in the City of Detroit’s Housing & Revitalization Department. Kimberly is a licensed architect with a specialty in real estate project management and public administration.
Diana Flora is a Kresge Mayor’s Fellow for the City of Detroit, working specifically with the Detroit Police Department to implement strategic initiatives that advance the department’s crime reduction, operational efficiency, and community service goals. In her role, she uses data-driven strategies to stimulate a discussion about the needs and challenges of public safety in Detroit.
Rachel Frierson is the director of programming for the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy, the non-profit organization responsible for developing the Detroit RiverWalk and the Dequindre Cut. Rachel oversees and implements the diverse program offerings that activate the Detroit Riverfront to create a world-class gathering space for three million visitors annually.
Andy Goddeeris is an attorney, urbanist, and lifelong Detroiter currently serving as Senior Policy Counsel to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. His work focuses on developing radical policy and supporting grassroots movements for social change and intersectional justice. He lives in Northwest Detroit with his partner and a whole bunch of cats.
Laura Grannemann leads the Quicken Loans Community Fund, which drives national philanthropic strategy for Quicken Loans. She co-founded the organization in May of 2016. Throughout her time at the Community Fund, Laura has focused on solving complex challenges like tax foreclosure, employment barriers, and the mortgage market in Detroit.
Dr. Alaina Jackson’s experience spans the areas of businesses development, workforce development, and homeownership modeling. She has functioned as a Program Manager, Community Engagement Lead, Grant Manger, Researcher and, most recently, Managing Director. Whatever the role, her work remains rooted in improving the quality of life for historically disenfranchised communities.
Erin Kelly is the Blue and Green Infrastructure Program Manager at Detroit Future City’s (DFC) Implementation Office. Prior to joining DFC, Erin was a Detroit Revitalization Fellow at NextEnergy, where she managed a range of projects occurring between the public, private and nonprofit sectors in southeast Michigan, each aimed at creating value from vacant buildings and structure-free land.
Dan Kinkead is an architect and urban designer. He serves as the Director of Projects for the Detroit Future City Implementation Office. Dan is also a writer, contributing to a forthcoming urban research book by Carnegie-Mellon University regarding the transformation of post-industrial cities. Currently Dan is collaborating with the World Bank to graphically convey ongoing research regarding rapid urbanization in East Asia, South Asia, and Africa.
Robert Linn is the Senior Inventory Data Manager at the Detroit Land Bank Authority, where he manages an inventory of 80,000 vacant and abandoned parcels while overseeing the development of land use policy and the use of data to create more granular and proactive responses to the city’s vacant properties.
Megan is a civil servant with a passion for people. As Strategic Initiatives Manager at Detroit Land Bank Authority, she couples degrees in policy and community development with project management expertise. Four years of experience growing housing and vacant land initiatives support her drive for pioneering solutions in equitable development.
Josh McManus is fascinated with and driven by problem-solving for places, people and purpose. Josh assists corporations, foundations and large non-profits in reimagining post-industrial American cities. He is a constant advocate for using design processes to advance social, cultural and economic progress. Josh’s current work focuses on the revitalization and entrepreneurial development of Detroit, Michigan and other post-industrial cities.
Hannah Mae was drawn from her native Denver to Detroit to work alongside catalytic investor Dan Gilbert on what the NYT calls “one of the most ambitious privately financed urban reclamation projects in American history.” She directs special projects at the intersection of real estate development, economic development, and transit/mobility.
Bethany Miller is a program officer for The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program which aims to increase college attainment in cities. Previously, she led evaluation at the Helios Education Foundation and held positions with MDRC and The American Council on Education. She has an MPA from Princeton University and a BA from Smith College.
Ceara O’Leary, AIA, is a Co-Executive Director at the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC), where she leads collaborative community design and planning projects citywide alongside neighborhood partners and with a focus on community engagement. She is also a Professor of Practice at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, teaching public interest design and community development courses. Ceara’s professional work, teaching, research and speaking focus on inclusive design of community spaces, ranging from building renovations and open space design to neighborhood plans and citywide infrastructure strategy. Ceara joined the DCDC in 2012 as an Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow and is the Immediate Past Chair of the AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community Advisory Group. In 2015 Ceara was named a “Top Urban Innovator” by Next City Vanguard and completed a fellowship with the ULI Larsen Center for Leadership. Previously, Ceara worked with bcWORKSHOP in the Lower Rio Grade Valley and the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi. Ceara graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with Masters degrees in Architecture and City & Regional Planning and she earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University.
Jessica Robinson is Director, City Solutions at Ford Smart Mobility where she works with cities to understand local priorities and to identify new mobility solutions to meet current and future transportation needs. Jessica previously scaled Zipcar’s innovative car sharing model as Marketing Manager, Locations Manager, and Market Launch Manager.
Ari is the Vice President, Chief Program and Strategy Officer of the Kresge Foundation – a philanthropy dedicated to expanding opportunities for people with low-incomes in America’s cities. In that role, he directs Kresge’s national and place-based programs, Opportunity Fund, and learning and evaluation efforts.
Ben Stone is Director of Arts & Culture at Smart Growth America and its program Transportation for America. Based in Detroit, Ben leads the national organizations’ broad efforts to help communities across the country better integrate artistic practice into neighborhood revitalization, equitable development, and transportation planning efforts. Ben holds degrees in studio art, American studies, and city planning from the SMFA Boston, Tufts, and MIT.
Sarah Szurpicki specializes in building and facilitating collaborations, program design and evaluation, and strategic planning. Sarah also leads our work with Michigan Future Schools, coordinating, evaluating, and reporting on the effort to accelerate high-performing new high schools in Detroit. In January 2010, Sarah was a member of a coalition that released the Detroit Declaration, a set of 12 principles and a call to action that will set Detroit on a path to prosperity.
Ebrahim is the President & Co-Founder of Patronicity. Based out of Detroit, he recognized a city filled with people passionate about growth, empowerment and change. He believes the cornerstone between a great idea and it coming to life is often times the funding, and started Patronicity as a civic crowdfunding platform to inspire growth and change through cities and towns, both urban and rural across Michigan and the country. Growing Patronicity to be more than just a civic crowdfunding platform, he has led Patronicity to change the way grants are administered and how communities come together to envision, build and create more sustainable and impactful project meaningful to them. Being an entrepreneur coupled with his passion for sustainable community development, he enjoys learning of great new initiatives happening around the country started by other entrepreneurs, innovators, artists, & activists.
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