Fifth Week in Detroit: A Talented Team – Detroit Community-Engaged Research Program

Fifth Week in Detroit: A Talented Team

The Parks team at DDP is an excellent example of a team with diverse skills and backgrounds and how valuable that is. I figured this post might be an opportunity to highlight some of the skills that I hope to incorporate into my own professional life. Unfortunately, I have since learned that they read these blog posts so I can’t heap their praises too high. Laura, who I work most directly under, is excellent at managing the many moving parts that go into putting together programming across the parks. She is very good at cutting through fluff and getting to what needs to be done or even telling people what can’t be done. David has paired his background in urban planning with a clear passion for his hometown into a cohesive vision of what he believes downtown can be. On walks we often lose John, our director of operations, as he makes a point to talk to everyone who works in the parks and many people who don’t. I’ve seen Soula use her personability as an asset to help bring in a variety of partnership opportunities. On one of the hotter days, I saw Derek go through three different shirts as he hustled to make sure everything was set up properly. Every part of this team is essential to its functioning.  Furthermore, it’s simply cool to watch people be good at their job.

lsa logoum logo