Dean Elizabeth Moje has been recognized by Crain’s Detroit Business as a 2023 Leader in Higher Education. Moje is among 26 honorees who were nominated by their peers, companies, and community.

A new documentary features the Class of 2023, the first high school students to graduate from The School at Marygrove. Featuring Marsal School Dean Elizabeth Moje, The School at Marygrove Principal Lisa Williams, teachers, and members of the Class of 2023, Detroit Public Television recently aired The Pioneers of Marygrove. Opened in 2019 on the campus of the former Marygrove College in Northwest Detroit, the school offers a unique opportunity for students to engage in project- and placed-based learning with a focus on STEM and social justice.

Elizabeth James, now a program manager with the LSA Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, was nearly three years old when her grandmother packed a lunch for the two of them and set out to join a walk that was part of the Civil Rights Movement. It was June 23, 1963 ,and the event was officially called the Detroit Walk to Freedom.

The Office of the Vice President for Research has awarded nearly $450,000 in grants across seven research teams to investigate the effects of systemic racism and inform strategies to combat them. These include two project teams working on Detroit topics.

For Michigan Law faculty member Dana Thompson, the law isn’t just a profession. It’s a way to bring about economic change and further social justice. Thompson was born in Detroit and is a true Motowner – her father worked for Motown Records as a writer, arranger, and lyricist. She leads the Detroit-based Community Enterprise Clinic that connects law students with clients in the city.

Joshua Sirefman leads what some see as the most important economic development project in Michigan. Sirefman is chief executive officer of Michigan Central, a sprawling, 30-acre mobility district centered at the historic, but long-abandoned Michigan Central Station in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.

Detroit Greenways Coalition, Doing Development Differently in Metro Detroit (D4), GreenPath Financial Wellness, Southwest Economic Solutions Corporation, and Communities First Inc. were recently awarded grants of up to $200,000 each from United Way for Southeastern Michigan – a total investment of more than $1 million – to pilot their ideas as part of the Detroit Financial Well-Being Innovation Challenge. 

Detroit had the highest proportion of adults with severe disease based on responses about symptom severity and hospitalization, while the southwest region of the state had the highest proportion of adults with long COVID—persistent symptoms 90+ days after COVID-19 onset.

The School at Marygrove is in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, located in northwest Detroit, and the site of the nation’s first teaching school.