For 21-year-old Shanel Dewalt cooking goes beyond cutting vegetables and mixing ingredients. This is how her mind finds peace and how she is reminded of her purpose. As the oldest of five siblings being raised in a single-parent household, the Detroit native realized she had to grow up at a very young age. When her […]
An optimist and advocate, J.J. Tighe offers compelling reasons why we should care passionately about community health. “Improving our health is paramount for us as individuals and as a State,” says Tighe, president and CEO of the Michigan Fitness Foundation (MFF). “Personal choice and responsibility when it comes to healthy choices is critical, so education […]
For Victoria Roby the world of online retailing was beneficial. In her dining room, office, or anywhere she could flip open a laptop and reach cyberspace, she could serve loyal consumers of her natural hair, body and relaxation products. But it’s a new year and Roby’s ready to move her Natural Market business from […]
One consistent thing that happens at the Mackinac Policy Conference is someone (or multiple someones) has to ask: What, if anything, happens when business leaders, governmental representatives, philantropists, educational experts and the media are stuck together in a hotel for four days? The typical answer is – or, at least, the expectation of those naysayers […]
When Sheilah Clay became CEO of Neighborhood Services Organization 16 years ago one of her goals was to end homelessness as we know it. She’s making progress and other organizations are also picking up the momentum and developing some spectacular solutions. “We are working to rapidly re-house the homeless population to break the cycle of […]
If you ever had any questions of how your mother might impact your career, you only need to look at the fairy-tale story of Daymond John. Well, fairy tale might be too strong. It was a series of starts and stops, braggadocio and bravery that got John from his mom’s basement to an international brand […]
Pardon me for a bit of presumptuousness, but Ron Fournier seems like the kind of guy you want to share a beer with in a Mackinac Island bar. Now, I don’t know the guy personally. I, like most people, follow him on social media (where he’s consistently hilarious, intellectual and sensitive on Twitter – no […]
Whether we realize it or not, we’ve all received or benefited from a second chance at some point in our lives. Unfortunately, not everyone is as quick or generous to extend a second chance when it comes to helping convicted felons return to society in a constructive and productive manner. These are the friends, relatives, […]
Building bridges is a great thing. They connect people and cultures, break down separation, and bring businesses to jobs and jobs to businesses. In short, they fill gaps. There’s a new bridge being built between Michigan and Israel. It’s part of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s (MEDC) Pure Michigan Business Connect program and is created […]
Pay for food or a car? On the surface it seems simple, until you factor in that you need a car to get to work so that you can pay for the food. Thanks to a high interest rate on her auto loan, that’s the trap LaTonza VanBuren found herself in until she was helped […]