Community Foundation President and CEO Nicole Sherard-Freeman discusses collaboration, regionalism on WJR’s ‘Focus Show’

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan President and CEO Nicole Sherard-Freeman recently joined guest host Ryan Goldberg, CEO of Dearborn Federal Credit Union, for an episode of WJR’s the “Focus Show,” live from the Detroit Economic Club (DEC).

The interview was part of programming around the DEC event “A Conversation on the Economy and Monetary Policy” featuring Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President and CEO Austan Goolsbee. The fireside chat, which occurred on April 7 at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, highlighted the economy, employment and inflation.

Ahead of the marquee conversation, Goldberg asked Sherard-Freeman what she thinks others might be missing about southeast Michigan, given her wide-ranging career background – with leadership experiences in the corporate sector, as an entrepreneur, in nonprofits, serving former Detroit Mayor Mike Dugan’s administration and now leading one of the largest community foundations in the country.

Her answer boiled down to one of the Community Foundation’s core values: collaboration.

“When you talk with leaders across all the sectors that I’ve been privileged to work in, … everybody says one thing: It’s important for us to work together to solve the challenges that are facing the region,” Sherard-Freeman says. “When you move that down to ground level, when you’re at ground zero and you’re operationalizing, we tend to stay in our silos. It isn’t intentional. It’s a function of having so much to do, with so few resources, in so little time. So, people just get laser-focused on what’s in their lane.

“What we sometimes miss is the opportunity to pull up and think regionally, to think about where our lanes cross and should cross and where we’re duplicative,” she says. “There’s so much opportunity, at this moment in particular, to be more deliberate and intentional about our partnerships.”

Sherard-Freeman encouraged listeners who are interested donating to a cause they care about or in getting involved in a broader conversation about what’s happening in southeast Michigan to visit cfsem.org or call 313-961-6675.