As Detroit rallies to reverse a prolonged economic downturn, its multi-pronged revitalization campaign now includes Wayne State University’s Detroit Revitalization Fellowship, a two-year executive certification program that has attracted twice its projected tally of applicants.
The 25 fellows, slated to be announced in July, are being plucked from a nationwide pool of 640 mid-career urban planners, public policymakers, lawyers, architects, community organizers and developers and others, with Detroit natives especially targeted for the fellowship.
“The surprising part is that they were not just applicants looking for jobs. A lot of them are currently employed; they’re serious contenders. That speaks to the value of the program and what’s happening in the city,” said Dr. Ahmad Ezzedine, Wayne State’s associate vice president for educational outreach and international programs. “We’re an urban research university. For years, we’ve been a major player … on economic development, education and health care. This is just another venue for doing some of the same kind of work.”
While employed at private firms, government agencies and nonprofit organizations, the fellows also will be immersed in academic case studies, on-campus courses, seminars led by an array of practitioners in urban development and key players from Detroit’s network of economic and community developers. In addition, they will excavate such issues as how to tap into the “social capital” and talents of blighted neighborhoods and the impact of race, gender and class on redevelopment.
“The Detroit Revitalization Fellows program is an opportunity for our organization to help grow a new generation of leaders that will be part of Detroit’s transformation,” said David Blaszkiewicz, president of Invest Detroit and chief executive officer of Downtown Detroit Partnership. “Participating in the program also helps us to increase our capacity to create a vibrant, sustainable future for Downtown Detroit by allowing us to add a creative, flexible, skilled and talented person to our staff.”
Co-sponsored with the Kresge and Hudson-Webber Foundations, Wayne State’s project is modeled after the University of Pennsylvania’s 2009 CureX Fellowship, whose key partner was the Rockefeller Foundation. Of the 25 fellows in CureX’s bid to resurrect New Orleans, post-Hurricane Katrina, 23 are still working in that Louisiana city. Most are at their original work sites.
“We’re all urban revitalization geeks, if you will,” said attorney John T. Marshall, a CureX alum, and legal counsel for the New Orleans Development Authority. “We see possibility and opportunity and beauty in neighborhoods, in cities. Just as a physician wants to make his patient better, we want cities to work better. That’s what gets us out of bed in the morning.”
