2019 Conference

• 2020 Census: A Crucial Opportunity to Rebuild Middle Class, Boost Workforce Training

  The city of Detroit, like communities across the state, will approach Census 2020 like one of the greatest door-to-door field campaigns it has ever seen.

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• Change Is Possible: Jeb Bush’s Lessons For Education Reform in Michigan

  Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, and founder, president, and chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, shared his experience in implementing education improvements in Florida and the approaches Michigan should consider.

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• Launch Michigan Partnership Brings Philanthropic, Education, and Business Leaders to the Table

  The Skillman Foundation’s Tonya Allen, Michigan Education Association’s Paula Herbart, and Business Leaders for Michigan’s Doug Rothwell explained their partnership through the Launch Michigan Coalition during The Education Crisis: Michigan’s Response session. This session was moderated by PNC Financial Services Group’s Richard L. DeVore.

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• Bill Pink on Michigan’s Education Problem

  “We have a problem; we have to go about fixing it,” said Bill Pink, president of Grand Rapids Community College on Thursday, May 30 at the 2019 Mackinac Policy Conference. Drawing on statewide and national data, Pink articulated Michigan’s current …

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• Mayor Mike Duggan Talks Detroit’s Progress

  “We are going to build a first-class city,” said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan during his keynote about the city’s progress and his goals for the next five year, on Thursday, May 30 at the 2019 Mackinac Policy Conference.

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• Closing the Skills Gap Requires More Than Talk

  Michigan communities have been trying to fix school systems and boost talent pipelines for years without having all the proper parts and tools they need. But this sort of “MacGyvering” won’t be enough to fill the nearly 600,000 job openings coming to the state by 2026.

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• Mackinac Moment: Ari Weinzweig Talks Shifting Perceptions

  “Reality is what we take to be true…What we take to be true determines our reality,” said Ari Weinzweig, co-founding partner for Zingerman’s Community of Businesses.

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• Wayne State University Uses Data to Address Detroit’s Health Challenges

  “We have to look at distributing data as a shared responsibility. We have to ask, ‘how do we share collective information to collaborate and solve problems?’” said Phillip D. Levy, professor and associate chair for emergency medicine for Wayne State University (WSU),

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• Mackinac Moment: Alisyn Malek’s Vision for Michigan Mobility

  Alisyn Malek, chief operating officer and co-founder of May Mobility, shared her vision for mobility in Michigan on Thursday, May 30 at the 2019 Mackinac Policy Conference. With a background in automotive engineering, Malek caught the mobility bug early in her career, committing herself to developing robust, multi-modal transportation systems that provide more accessible options for consumers.

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• John Kasich: Change from the Bottom Up, Not Top Down

  “Time is running. The clocking is winding down,” said John Kasich, former governor of Ohio and senior political commentator for CNN. “The question is, can we seize the moment to leave a legacy to live a life a little bigger than ourselves?”

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