Jobs Landed

I work with Ally's $12 billion global diversified investment securities portfolio. I am engaged in the accounting, reporting, and analysis activities for the portfolio. I maintain our ledger and produce reports for the SEC, Federal Reserve, and other regulatory agencies. Additionally, I provide reports and analytics to management and traders on our investments to better inform our decision makers.

I have recently written the level III CFA examination, and I am able to put to work on a daily basis many of the skills that I have developed through the process. My career has me working with individuals from locales ranging from NYC and Charlotte to Mexico and the UK, with roles ranging from auditor and regulator to trader and director. I am very happy with my role at Ally Financial. It is an exciting time of change at Ally and this has created an environment that challenges and enlivens me daily.

I work at the University of Michigan Spectrum Center where we work with students, faculty, and staff around sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. I have a lot of the admin, budget, and HR responsibilities and I also do student programming and outreach events. I love my job because I get to work with students on a daily basis, bring in amazing speakers, and be part of the first LGBTQ center at any university in the nation.

As Compuware's first Garden Manager, I feel so fortunate to work and play in the heart of Detroit's downtown corridor. Lafayette Greens is Compuware's first urban garden, sitting on the site of the former Lafayette Building, at the corner of Michigan, Shelby, and Lafayette. About a half-acre of land, the garden features raised beds with a multitude of organically-grown, beautifully delicious produce, including a small orchard on the Michigan Ave! A living, green, edible space, right in the heart of the city!!! And, as a self-proclaimed quality-control agent, I have the happy job of ensuring what we grow tastes great, and is distributed throughout the community. Most of the produce we grow goes to Gleaners Community Food Bank, and the rest goes to volunteers.

Urban agriculture drew me to Detroit.  In college, I found myself reading and writing a lot about the values inherent in growing food for oneself, within one's community, and in cooperation with nature.  My move to Detroit directly responded to my collegiate understanding of food justice: I had great academic sense surrounding the topic of urban agriculture, community supported agriculture, and organic growing, but I had no physical experience.  My Detroit experience has, and continues to, legitimize my undergraduate work.

Detroit offers such amazing richness, life, and culture when it comes to food.  Naturally, this solidified my desire to stay in the city: with local farmers markets (Eastern Market, Wayne State, and more!), the many great garden projects of the city (D-Town Farms, Earthworks Urban Farm, and Georgia Street to name a few), and the wide variety of restaurants, I am happy to say I've found "home." 

ePrize helps brands to connect with their customers. My role as an Account Director is to find new brands that could benefit from our services. We offer many different products through multiple channels including mircosites, facebook, and mobile, which always brands to constantly connect with the consumers. I love working with brands and helping to really communicate with people like you and me. I am passionate about building brands. Another thing that drew me to this company is the fact that we are highly skilled and always innovating and creating new product offerings. If a client can dream it, we can do it.  love that about ePrize.

I am responsible for overseeing the client interface of local and multi-market partners in most Michigan IMG Publications. I also oversee the account and program management for IMG's large-scale Michigan Projects, in conjunction with IMG's Group Publisher as well as develop and execute the strategy for the Michigan Client Renewal Process. As part of IMG's Leadership Team, I also support the strategic vision of IMG.

Upon my arrival back to Detroit, I interviewed with Denise Ilitch for a Social Media position for her growing brand, Denise Ilitch Designs.  The moment I met Denise I knew I had to work for her. Her energy and entrepreneurial attitude is contagious.  My official position is Director of Social Media; which is digital marketing (promoting online sales, e-marketing through facebook, twitter, linked in and other social media tools).  Also, I launched Denise's personal blog www.deniseilitch.com. In addition to Social Media I assist in creative development of the Denise Ilitch Designs brand.  Coming from the New York fashion industry it's exhilarating to be at the forefront of a growing fashion brand based in Detroit!  

As we were growing Denise Ilitch Designs online presence we realized what an opportunity there was in the social media sector.  Thus, Denise & I decided to launch a social media consulting agency where we help other companies synergize their traditional marketing with social media marketing and establish specific social media strategies to their industry.

Every day is a little bit different at Skidmore because of the nature of how we work – meaning with lots of different clients in lots of different mediums. In addition to marketing strategy, my main role at Skidmore is copywriting. This could include anything from naming a new product or writing a headline for an ad to writing a website or radio script.

Besides the great office space, Skidmore is different from other places I've worked because I can actually collaborate with the designers and illustrators that will be working on the projects. In addition to making my day a lot more interesting, working through each project as a team really makes a difference in what we come up with.

I have over twenty five years of experience in the catering business.My experience includes everything from cooking to training and management of many different types of operations. In the recent past, I built my own full service catering company in Washtenaw County called Effortless Entertaining and received caterer of the year in 2009 & 2010 from the U.S. Commerce Association and Southeast Michigan caterer of the year many times. I will work directly with Produce Station Executive Chef Brian Cromwell for all catering events. I will focus on customer relations, sales, and operations of the catering department.

I am part of the SRT team building custom software solutions for automotive, manufacturing, marketing, technology, and on-line health management companies. My area of expertise is in object oriented and relational database design. I have extensive experience with Java and J2EE technologies, Oracle, and multiple open source development frameworks and tools, with recent experience developing mobile apps on the Android platform and building web services in Java with Hibernate (ORM), and the Spring IOC framework.

I am a workers' compensation and medical malpractice defense lawyer.  I found my job by being scouted by an attorney based upon my professional appearance and positive reputation despite limited experience.  I believe it is important to always dress like the profession you desire and have an optimistic outlook which leads to open doors.   I truly enjoy the law and incorporating my business degree by representing corporations and non-profit entities.  I see the great growth that has taken place in Detroit in my lifetime and think we are riding the wave of a great resurgence in our region.  I also relish opportunities to give back to the community by participating on committees and boards for some of the transformative projects currently underway and I encourage other young professionals to do the same.  In doing so, we continue to create a climate that is rich in business growth and culture that will attract and retain more  talent to Detroit and its surrounding areas.  The other benefit to giving back is it allows you to connect to the most dynamic business leaders in our area which leads to further job opportunity and individual growth.

MentalNote is an electronic medical records (EMR) for the behavioral health industry. MentalNote was created and designed by Dr. James Hughes, a psychiatrist and programming hobbyist. Dr. Hughes and I created the H&T Medical Solutions company to help simplify psychiatrist's documentation in private practices. The company is refer as MentalNote, the brand name. After three years of piloting MentalNote and selling over 150 paid licenses in 5 countries, the market research showed a need for MentalNote. It provided simple tools and features that was missing in the EMR industry.

As CEO of MentalNote, the responsibilities are unlimited and I LOVE it. Like any entrepreneur for a startup, you wear multiple hats to run your business. Not only do I have to manage the daily operations of the company, meet the sales projections, continuously build the brand, seek partnership to expand the business and pay my employees, but I also have to do a lot of public relations (PR) for MentalNote. Being the CEO, I have to accept that I am the face of the brand and that the energy, exciting and PR I do everyday is how the brand will be perceived. I want MentalNote to be known as a "creative" company and not just another EMR. In addition, making sure our business partners are as equal or more successful  than we are is very important to me. I tremendously enjoy this job and I find it challenging each day.

I am an employee with Michigan State University Extension. This division is a branch of the pioneering land-grant school Michigan State University. The principles of MSU Extension ensure that the communities served in all 83 counties receive the best! I have been greatly influenced by MSU Extension's principals of Excellence, People, Change, Openness and Integrity, Diversity, Accessibility and Partnerships. On a daily basis, these principals contribute to my professional success and growth in the Wayne County 4-H Mentoring Program!  

MSU Extension reaches out to youth ages 10-17 in Wayne County via the Wayne County 4-H Mentoring Program. I am employed to support the 4-H Mentoring Program. My responsibilities include: case management (Match Specialist), mentor training (Co-Facilitator), program evaluation (Principal Evaluator), and an annual etiquette workshop (Developer & Principal Trainer). Each day offers a new experience! I enjoy sharing my knowledge with the mentors and the mentees. It is exciting when I find or read about articles, activities, scholarships, cultural experiences, and other things to that may be to their benefit. Working for MSU Extension affords me the opportunity to support my community and cultivate my strengths and talents!

While attending Wayne State University and working as an intern at Berg Muirhead (Detroit-based PR agency) I quickly learned I wanted my public relations career to be with an agency. I thoroughly enjoy the fast-paced culture and opportunities to grow, and utilize a variety of skills while working with a diverse set of clients.

I found out about my current job through a few different resources; a friend and former colleague emailed me the job listing and it was posted on the Public Relations Society of America Detroit chapter's website. I began working at Lambert, Edwards and Associates in February 2011. As an associate at LE&A, I support the firm's health care practice and work on the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and DTE accounts. LE&A is Michigan's only state-wide firm with offices in Grand Rapids, Troy and Lansing. I enjoy being able to work with large companies that are Michigan-based and help tell their stories. The best part about working at LE&A is the people; the agency has a hard-working, team-oriented and fun culture with smart and passionate professionals.

When I moved to the Detroit area about four and a half years ago, I came here with the mentality of just needing to complete my bachelor's degree and then leave to go back home to Northern Virgina and work in D.C. or another big city. But, I unexpectedly fell in love with Detroit and the people. I quickly learned that while there's a lot of competition in the job market, it's a small town and you need to just be well-prepared and open minded. Detroit can offer so many great opportunities that you wouldn't get the chance to have in other big cities. 

I analyze mortgage packages to determine accuracy of information, resolve closing discrepancies and prepare outbound correspondence and shipping of mortgage packages. I also work with lenders and borrowers to ensure timely funding of loans
 
I ended up in the Detroit area at the end of my service with the Marine Corps Reserve. I hired in with Title Source through Aerotek Professional Services, and it seemed to mesh well with my administrative background. I enjoy the great sense of teamwork we have here.

Our company Deep Blue Pictures is a production company based in the metro Detroit area. We develop and produce a wide array of projects raining from commercials, short films, music videos and our main focus, feature films.   Right before graduating U of M in 2009 my business partner, Danny Mooney, and I thought we would have to move our company out of the State. In 2008 Michigan passed the Film Incentives and to our surprise we were able to find much success in the film industry while remaining in Michigan. It has been a pleasure remaining in our home towns while fulfilling our dreams of working in the film industry.