Mark Nickita, FAIA is a nationally known urbanist, architect, retail entrepreneur, developer, educator, an elected municipal leader and President of Archive DS, an award-winning, architectural and urban design firm in Detroit and Toronto.

Mark’s presentation asks us to consider comfort. Where do we feel comfortable in an inclusive community? What is it about that space that makes us feel comfortable? Taking inspiration from his travels around the world, Mark gave us insight as to how other cities are answering these questions.

Betsy Williams is a LEED accredited, senior architect at Detroit-based architecture and design firm, Hamilton Anderson Associates.

In her presentation, Betsy discusses the challenges associated with including older Americans into a community design and as architects begin to think more inclusively in their design, the elderly are often left out. Her focus looked at how current aging trends make this more and more of an important issue.

Donna Givens has over 30 years of nonprofit leadership experience in areas of youth and family development, community economic development, community partnerships, and community education.

Donna began her presentation with an antidote on a citizen of Detroit's frustrations to continue to pay taxes and not seeing the fruition of those taxes in her neighborhood. These forgotten communities of Detroit are what have been Donna’s focus. Her work bridges the gap between policy, government and community to help loosen land bank owned properties to inspire a more sustainable and efficient use of vacant land in the Lower Eastside of Detroit.

Wes Michaels is a founding principal of Spackman Mossop Michaels landscape architects based in New Orleans. As an industry leader Wes & his team push the boundaries of environment spaces to encompass smart, inclusive design which is both functional and future driven.

Citing examples from the work Spackman Mossop Michaels has done in both Detroit & New Orlean, Wes asked the questions: what happens to a neighborhood when everyone leaves and what can it be? What ideas can designers bring to a space as it develops? How do we redefine what that means for its current residents?

Born and raised in Detroit, Tiffany Brown has an extensive background in architecture and construction management. She holds masters degrees in architecture and business administration.

Tiffany’s presentation began as a journey through her struggles as a black female youth in Detroit and how she rose from those struggles to become a highly renowned female architect in a very male dominated field. It was this struggle that made her into an advocate for advancing African American women in the field and how she’s working to shape the future landscape for the field.

Dan Carmody has led local governments, small businesses, and non-profits during a career focused on reviving rust-belt cities. He is executive director of the Eastern Market Corporation, which is a 180-year-old farmer’s market in Detroit.

In his presentation, Dan discusses the importance of a community with an integral food economy . His work with the Eastern Market Corp. continues the evolve the market keeping small business at the forefront of its efforts.

As an architect and co-director for SmithGroup’s national urban design practice, Dan Kinkead brings 20 years of experience in urban design, including all scales of mixed-use development, adaptive reuse and strategic planning.

Dan talks about the global trends in urban populations and how this leads to cities in the world being both smaller and bigger at the same time. Growing urban populations, climate change and how we adapt to the evolving landscape of a “global community” within a city center and outward are the focus of this presentation.

Hubert Sawyers was born and raised in Detroit in the North Rosedale neighborhood and held a position as the Present of the North Rosedale Park Civic Association.

Hubert began his presentation by discussing the differences between a community and a neighborhood and then finished by inspiring our audience to just keep pushing and making these great changes in the communities. Despite some of the challenges, it was always worth it in the end.

A Certified Business Solutions Professional and graduate of Leadership Detroit XXXV, Bonnie Fahoome has spent nearly 10 years serving small businesses through various organizations within Detroit.

Bonnie Fahoome’s presentation gives her audience the evolution of Design Core Detroit and how they’ve worked to boost Detroit’s UNESCO City of Design distinction with architects, designers and industry leaders. She also spoke to the future of what Detroit design will look like.

Russell Baltimore is a Design Leader with over 22 years of experience executing forward-thinking AEC projects from concept design through completion. He is joined by Malik Yakini, an activist and educator who is committed to freedom and justice for African people in particular and humanity in general.

In the Detroit Food Commons presentation, Russell and Malik discuss the how the site has been inspired by a shortage of grocery stores within Detroit boroughs and limited black-led businesses. Both men consider this a catalyst for community development as the site will offer not only opportunity for healthy foods, but also help to recirculate local profits within the city and provide the community with resources to prosper.

Salvador Lindquist is an urban designer and a licensed landscape architect with several years of experience in practice operating on projects at a multitude of scales.

As the first place winner of Detroit’s Give a Park, Get a Park design contest, Salvador discusses the idea behind “Humans For Design” as a newly designed park in the Morningside neighborhood and how it utilized the neighborhood to be included in each stage of development.

Monica Rao overseas the Opportunity Neighborhoods program for Global Detroit. She is a graduate of Haverford College in Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing a masters in business administration at the University of Michigan.

In her presentation, Monica paints the importance of inclusion for immigration inside of Detroit and what her personal experience has been. From that personal experience, she works to bridge the gaps between businesses, social programs and immigrants both within the Banglatown borough and to other neighborhoods within Detroit.