As director of U-M’s Ginsberg Center, Mary Jo Callan helps make connections on a daily basis, pairing community partners addressing social concerns, such as nonprofit organizations, schools, and local governments, across Southeast Michigan and Metro Detroit with students and faculty at U-M to support their work.

“Perhaps more importantly, health and housing work in Detroit is ultimately racial justice work. I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, and what I do is motivated by the overt and disturbing inequities that exist in the Detroit metropolitan region… I hope that my work can bring some material benefit to the people of Detroit.”
~ Alexa Eisenberg

UM-Dearborn Assistant Professor Natalie Sampson’s research into public health issues in Detroit’s Delray neighborhood has spanned a decade — and has begun to play a role in shaping public policy. But when talking about the years of work, she definitely prefers shining the spotlight on the community and her partners.

The podcast, called Detroit’s Daily Docket, is a partnership between the medical examiner and University of Michigan Medicine pathology department. The goal, officials said, is to provide “education for the lay public and armchair detective,” as well as highlight the relationship between the university and Wayne County.

To understand Detroit’s transformation over the past decade, some say you need to visit the city in person to witness the vast changes. That message and enthusiasm for how young leaders can have a long-term impact on the city came through loud and clear at the Detroit Impact Conference.

“Detroit has always been an incredible place of innovation and opportunity, and the Detroit Center for Innovation will usher the city into a new era of leadership in technology. This gift is a symbol of progress and momentum in Detroit and I am incredibly proud to advance this transformative project…” said Stephen Ross, U-M alumnus and chairman of Related Cos.

President Mark Schlissel appointed 21 faculty members and administrators to the Detroit Center for Innovation Curriculum Development Committee. The committee of 17 regular and four ex-officio members began meeting weekly recently to formulate curricula that are interdisciplinary and focused on the emerging needs of the Detroit regional economy.

According to the forecast, the city’s unemployment rate will continue to fall from 18.7% in July 2013, when the city filed for bankruptcy, to 8.6% in 2019, and to 7.9% by 2023 and 2024, improving faster than the statewide measure.

Jolly is interested in the intersection of the personal and political in the lives of black women.  Her dissertation, for example, explores the sexual lives and grassroots politics of young Jamaican women living with HIV/AIDS and their impact on transnational feminist activism and public health. Her work in Detroit complemented this research.