[Music]
[Applause]
good evening everyone my name is
Kimberly Dowdell and I ran away from
home when I was 13 years old I’ll get
back to that in a moment let me talk
about home for a little bit
Detroit Michigan is my home I’m a native
Detroiter born and raised I lived on the
east side on the west side and Midtown
before was even called Midtown it was
the caste corridor back in my day and
some would argue that I grew up in
Detroit and one of the more challenging
times in the city’s history and I
remember talking to older family members
and they would tell me you know Detroit
really used to be a happening place and
I remember looking around and saying
well but what happened here though
like what’s what’s going on and a
specific example of that is the old
Hudson’s department store which used to
be on Woodward Avenue I remember a
distinct moment when I was 11 years old
and I was looking up with the Hudsons
building I was looking on the streets
and seeing people sort of fad and I
thought to myself well if we fixed the
buildings then you know we would fix the
situation with the people and Detroit
would the Detroit problem would be
solved so at that moment I decided I
would become an architect and I would
fix Detroit that was like the short
story so then why did I run away from
home two years later well I’d like to
call Detroit home base if you will and I
went to Burns Elementary School on
Detroit’s northwest side which is
Detroit Public School so that makes me a
dps kid for life but I ran away from
home actually straight up Woodward
Avenue it’s a boarding school at
Cranbrook so at 13 I’m in boarding
school and while the Kornberg was a
really great experience highly recommend
it I played basketball and I played
softball and that’s what I really
understood the power of teamwork
I always say to my students teamwork
makes the dream work
I also learned at Cranbrook the
importance of sort of getting out of
your comfort zone
and you know seeing seeing the larger
world I had you know within boarding
school there were people from all over
the country and all over the world and
so that’s what sir prompted me to look
at maybe not returning to Detroit right
away but maybe going to school somewhere
else so for me again as the DPS kid home
base and then Cranbrook for me was first
base so for second base I decided to go
to Cornell University where I studied
architecture again it was a really great
experience highly recommend it and there
I learned that architects alone actually
can’t solve the Detroit problem it
actually requires a really wide variety
of professionals architects developers
bankers lawyers you name it I mean
almost anyone can be a part of the the
solution but it’s really a diverse team
that’s that’s really critical so with
that knowledge and also with the
understanding there’s a whole big world
out there I decided that instead of
coming back home while I was on second
base in Ithaca New York I decided that I
would go to DC so I spent a couple years
in Washington DC practicing architecture
and then I moved to New York City for
most of my 20s there I became licensed
as an architect I was actually the 290
fifth licensed black female architects
like in history so that was a big deal
but then I turned 30 like shortly
thereafter and when he turned 30 kind of
think about your life a little bit
you’re like what am i doing you know I
thought about that eleven-year-old kid
who was downtown in Detroit and you know
I wasn’t I wasn’t here I was in New York
that’s having a great time and I was
like but there’s so much more I need to
be doing for Detroit and so what does
one do when they’re not entirely sure
what to do graduate school so right so
here I am on second base in New York and
I ended up going to Harvard for graduate
school so that’s my third base if you
will I got a full tuition fellowship
with in the center for public leadership
in the jonatha D School of Government at
Harvard and there I really started to
understand the importance of try sector
collaboration so public sector private
sector and not-for-profit sector I think
they’re all really critical in solving a
lot of the city’s problems so while in
graduate school I get a call from the
city of Detroit and that call prompted
me to think about what exactly I was
going to do after graduation essentially
I was recruited to work for the housing
and revitalization apartment here in
Detroit and so that was my opportunity
to run from third base slide into home
and work for the city so I did that and
it was a really good experience I came
back in 2015 and in that role I actually
worked with lots of different developers
around the city and one particular
developer that that really sort of
struck struck a chord with with what I
wanted to do was century partners so
sensory partners was founded in 2014 by
David Holladay and Andrew Cuomo and
within my first year of working for the
city sort of towards the end of that
first year I actually pivoted back into
the private sector to become the third
partner with century partners and and
the work that we’re doing we you know
we’re really trying to reimagine
Detroit’s neighborhoods in a really
sustainable holistic way the four
neighborhoods were focused right now are
Boston Edison the North End
East English village and most recently
Fitzgerald we’re really excited about
the the neighborhood revitalization work
that we’re doing together sort of as a
team which again makes the dream work as
a team
we are you know working with a really
wide variety of professionals in fact
the three of us have very different
backgrounds and we’re working with the
public sector to the private sector and
the nonprofit sector to really
revitalize the communities where we’re
working so it’s a very exciting time and
we’re super excited about the potential
that Detroit has to come back in a big
way but I think what I’m most excited
about is the potential of more people to
come back to Detroit more people to come
to Detroit more people to stay in
Detroit to run their own bases and you
know not everyone’s sort of running
around the bases gonna be the same as
mine but you know we all have our own
bases to run and so what I encourage you
all to do is think about what your bases
are and how you can actually you know
run them and serve score one for the
home team so that’s my story and I
encourage you all to really think about
what you can do to contribute to the
service of the city so that we can all
have a great game go Tigers thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
good evening everyone my name is
Kimberly Dowdell and I ran away from
home when I was 13 years old I’ll get
back to that in a moment let me talk
about home for a little bit
Detroit Michigan is my home I’m a native
Detroiter born and raised I lived on the
east side on the west side and Midtown
before was even called Midtown it was
the caste corridor back in my day and
some would argue that I grew up in
Detroit and one of the more challenging
times in the city’s history and I
remember talking to older family members
and they would tell me you know Detroit
really used to be a happening place and
I remember looking around and saying
well but what happened here though
like what’s what’s going on and a
specific example of that is the old
Hudson’s department store which used to
be on Woodward Avenue I remember a
distinct moment when I was 11 years old
and I was looking up with the Hudsons
building I was looking on the streets
and seeing people sort of fad and I
thought to myself well if we fixed the
buildings then you know we would fix the
situation with the people and Detroit
would the Detroit problem would be
solved so at that moment I decided I
would become an architect and I would
fix Detroit that was like the short
story so then why did I run away from
home two years later well I’d like to
call Detroit home base if you will and I
went to Burns Elementary School on
Detroit’s northwest side which is
Detroit Public School so that makes me a
dps kid for life but I ran away from
home actually straight up Woodward
Avenue it’s a boarding school at
Cranbrook so at 13 I’m in boarding
school and while the Kornberg was a
really great experience highly recommend
it I played basketball and I played
softball and that’s what I really
understood the power of teamwork
I always say to my students teamwork
makes the dream work
I also learned at Cranbrook the
importance of sort of getting out of
your comfort zone
and you know seeing seeing the larger
world I had you know within boarding
school there were people from all over
the country and all over the world and
so that’s what sir prompted me to look
at maybe not returning to Detroit right
away but maybe going to school somewhere
else so for me again as the DPS kid home
base and then Cranbrook for me was first
base so for second base I decided to go
to Cornell University where I studied
architecture again it was a really great
experience highly recommend it and there
I learned that architects alone actually
can’t solve the Detroit problem it
actually requires a really wide variety
of professionals architects developers
bankers lawyers you name it I mean
almost anyone can be a part of the the
solution but it’s really a diverse team
that’s that’s really critical so with
that knowledge and also with the
understanding there’s a whole big world
out there I decided that instead of
coming back home while I was on second
base in Ithaca New York I decided that I
would go to DC so I spent a couple years
in Washington DC practicing architecture
and then I moved to New York City for
most of my 20s there I became licensed
as an architect I was actually the 290
fifth licensed black female architects
like in history so that was a big deal
but then I turned 30 like shortly
thereafter and when he turned 30 kind of
think about your life a little bit
you’re like what am i doing you know I
thought about that eleven-year-old kid
who was downtown in Detroit and you know
I wasn’t I wasn’t here I was in New York
that’s having a great time and I was
like but there’s so much more I need to
be doing for Detroit and so what does
one do when they’re not entirely sure
what to do graduate school so right so
here I am on second base in New York and
I ended up going to Harvard for graduate
school so that’s my third base if you
will I got a full tuition fellowship
with in the center for public leadership
in the jonatha D School of Government at
Harvard and there I really started to
understand the importance of try sector
collaboration so public sector private
sector and not-for-profit sector I think
they’re all really critical in solving a
lot of the city’s problems so while in
graduate school I get a call from the
city of Detroit and that call prompted
me to think about what exactly I was
going to do after graduation essentially
I was recruited to work for the housing
and revitalization apartment here in
Detroit and so that was my opportunity
to run from third base slide into home
and work for the city so I did that and
it was a really good experience I came
back in 2015 and in that role I actually
worked with lots of different developers
around the city and one particular
developer that that really sort of
struck struck a chord with with what I
wanted to do was century partners so
sensory partners was founded in 2014 by
David Holladay and Andrew Cuomo and
within my first year of working for the
city sort of towards the end of that
first year I actually pivoted back into
the private sector to become the third
partner with century partners and and
the work that we’re doing we you know
we’re really trying to reimagine
Detroit’s neighborhoods in a really
sustainable holistic way the four
neighborhoods were focused right now are
Boston Edison the North End
East English village and most recently
Fitzgerald we’re really excited about
the the neighborhood revitalization work
that we’re doing together sort of as a
team which again makes the dream work as
a team
we are you know working with a really
wide variety of professionals in fact
the three of us have very different
backgrounds and we’re working with the
public sector to the private sector and
the nonprofit sector to really
revitalize the communities where we’re
working so it’s a very exciting time and
we’re super excited about the potential
that Detroit has to come back in a big
way but I think what I’m most excited
about is the potential of more people to
come back to Detroit more people to come
to Detroit more people to stay in
Detroit to run their own bases and you
know not everyone’s sort of running
around the bases gonna be the same as
mine but you know we all have our own
bases to run and so what I encourage you
all to do is think about what your bases
are and how you can actually you know
run them and serve score one for the
home team so that’s my story and I
encourage you all to really think about
what you can do to contribute to the
service of the city so that we can all
have a great game go Tigers thank you
[Applause]
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