Dr. Indigo Willing believes the essential elements of a healthy life include doing fun things often, taking risks, and being connected to a community that makes you feel good about who you are.
This week’s Make Meaning guest, Kelli Dobner, Chief Advancement Officer at Samaritas, talks about culture, community, and connection to a higher purpose, and how she successfully rallies some 2,000 employees around a cause and a vision. It has something to do with taking chances and dressing up like a rock – you have to be all in, if you want everyone else to be! Ms. Dobner joined Samaritas in 2017, bringing a proud history of creating “a culture of ambassadorship.” She has built a career on the principles of communication, community-building and concern for the greater good. In 2018, she was named one of Crain’s Detroit Business Magazine’s Notable Women […]
Lionel Bradford is president and executive director of The Greening of Detroit, a nonprofit devoted to creating sustainable growth for a healthy, urban community through trees, green spaces, food, education, training and job opportunities. Lionel has a bachelor’s degree in urban forestry from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and began his career as a forestry technician with the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico.
Jarret Alan Schlaff is cultivator, engineer, and organizer (CEO) of Pingree Detroit, a worker-owned, community-based manufacturing company co-founded in January 2015. In Pingree’s Detroit workshop, Detroiters and U.S. veterans are paid a living wage to handcraft bags, urban utility boots, and accessories using luxury-grade leather upcycled from the American auto industry. Listen to Jarret Schlaff on the Make Meaning podcast with Lynne Golodner About Jarret, CEO Pingree Detroit Jarret Schlaff lives on Detroit’s eastside in the Charlevoix Villages community and is committed to fostering neighborhood resilience and developing opportunities for sustainable, community driven job creation accessible to all. Since 2007, he has launched four separate nonprofit projects and […]
Sherrie Singer is a full time community leader and volunteer. She is the president and co-founder of THREAD…Connecting Jewish Women, a non-profit organization with its mission to educate, engage and inspire Jewish women in the metro Detroit community. Sherrie joins Lynne on the Make Meaning podcast and discusses how Thread has grown, why she believes that every person has a sense of wanting to help others, and what she would tell others who feel they don’t know their passion or their purpose. Sherrie serves on several boards including the Board of Governors of Federation of Metro Detroit, the Executive Board […]
For the Make Meaning Podcast Episode #3, Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman’s joins Lynne in-studio to tell the story behind Zingerman’s and how they built a community of business from scratch. Beyond the two co-founders of Zingermans, there are now 17 managing partners and over 750 employees. Paul believes that he has been successful in spite of the fact that he has limited natural talent and abilities because he has always thought that the only real limits are those of vision. In this episode, Paul shares three tips on how to build business and why it’s important to him to “be […]
