Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan Presents Annual Leadership Awards
Caption: Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan President and CEO Nicole Sherard-Freeman, left, and Board of Trustees Chairman David T. Provost pose with Turning Point Macomb President and CEO Dr. Sharman Davenport, second from left, and Judson Center CEO and President Lenora Hardy-Foster. Davenport and Hardy-Foster, along with Community Foundation Trustee Ken Whipple, received leadership awards during the organization’s annual meeting on June 24 at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. Whipple attended virtually.
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan Board of Trustees presented three leadership awards during its annual meeting, which was held June 24 on the campus of its grantee partner Lawrence Technological University in Southfield.
“We look forward to this part of the annual meeting — the opportunity to recognize outstanding leadership in our community,” Community Foundation President and CEO Nicole Sherard-Freeman says. “Each of these awardees demonstrates a deep, sustained commitment to our shared vision of a southeast Michigan as a place where everyone can thrive.”
Program excellence award
The Richard Huegli Award for Program Excellence was presented to Turning Point Macomb. The award was accepted by Turning Point Macomb President and CEO Dr. Sharman Davenport. The Richard F. Huegli Award honors a nonprofit that demonstrates high standards in human services programming and belief in human potential.
Turning Point Macomb was established in 1981 to serve survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking in Macomb County and the surrounding region. Today, the organization offers a 24-hour crisis hotline, emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, legal advocacy, counseling and prevention education. It serves more than 27,000 survivors each year.
Turning Point Macomb is also the only organization in southeast Michigan operating a forensic nurse examiner program, a model it pioneered for the region. Crain’s Detroit Business recognized it as a Best-Managed Nonprofit in 2023, a reflection of the operational rigor that has sustained this work across more than four decades.
The Community Foundation’s relationship with Turning Point Macomb spans more than 25 years, including competitive grants, pandemic relief and, in 2024, a $75,000 grant to help provide activities and support groups for children and families.
Turning Point Macomb is the first Macomb County organization to receive the Huegli Award, which is a meaningful milestone for the Community Foundation’s commitment to recognizing excellence across all seven counties of southeast Michigan.
Nonprofit executive award
The Mariam C. Noland Award was presented to Lenora Hardy-Foster, CEO and president of the Judson Center. This award recognizes a nonprofit executive in southeast Michigan whose service exemplifies the importance of leadership in their organization and the nonprofit community.
The Judson Center is a Farmington Hills-based organization that has served Michigan families since 1924. Its mission is to provide expert, comprehensive services that strengthen children, adults and families impacted by abuse and neglect, autism, and developmental, behavioral and physical health challenges so they can achieve whole health, well-being and maximum potential.
Before joining Judson Center in 2016, Hardy-Foster spent 36 years at Southwest Solutions in Detroit, ultimately as executive director of the administrative services organization. That depth of sustained commitment to two major southeast Michigan institutions is rare, and it speaks to exactly the qualities this award was created to honor.
Under her leadership, the Judson Center’s annual budget has grown from $16.5 million to $30 million. The organization now serves more than 13,000 children, adults and families each year across five counties, and as a Michigan Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, a designation that reflects the highest standards of integrated care.
The Community Foundation has supported the Judson Center’s work across multiple programs since 2020, awarding six grants totaling more than $116,000, a relationship grounded in genuine confidence in the organization’s leadership and impact.
Board of Trustees award
The Allan D. Gilmour Award for Community Leadership was presented to Ken Whipple. This award, named for the chairman emeritus, recognizes a member of the Board of Trustees for their exemplary volunteerism and philanthropy, both to the Community Foundation and the broader community. Past recipients include Andrew Camden, Barbara McQuade and Paul Hillegonds.
Whipple has served on the Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees for the better part of two decades. For much of that time he chaired the Investment Committee, stewarding the Community Foundation’s endowment and investment strategy with extraordinary judgment and care. He continues to be an active trustee and Investment Committee member.
The Community Foundation has benefited from the experience and expertise Ken accumulated throughout a remarkable career. Ken spent more than 40 years at Ford Motor Company, where he first met Gilmour. Ken served at different times as Ford’s executive vice president, president of Ford Financial Services Group and CEO of Ford Credit before retiring in 1999. In 2002 he stepped in as chairman and CEO of Consumers Energy to help restore the company’s footing and integrity, and he remained its chairman through 2010.
His civic service to our region is just as deep. Ken has been a leader and board chair of the United Way Southeastern Michigan and a recipient of the United Way’s highest philanthropic honor, the Tocqueville Society Award. He is a past chair of Detroit Public Television, where his financial leadership helped fund the conversion from analog to digital broadcasting. He is a board member and past chair of Oakland Family Services. He chaired the Investment Committee for the City of Detroit’s General Retirement System, served as vice chair of the Detroit Financial Advisory Board during the city’s turnaround, and chaired the board of Detroit Country Day School, among many other roles.
Over the years, Ken has been recognized with various awards for his community service, including the Alois Alzheimer Award, the Max Fisher Community Service Award and the Heart of Gold Award.
As part of this distinction, Whipple has the privilege of recommending a $5,000 grant to a nonprofit of his choosing.