Team

Lou Glazer, President
lou@michiganfuture.org

Mr. Glazer is President and co-founder of Michigan Future, Inc., a non-partisan, non-profit organization. Michigan Future’s mission is to be a source of new ideas on how Michigan can succeed as a world class community in a knowledge-driven economy. Its work is funded by Michigan foundations.

Its two latest report are: Michigan’s Transition to a Knowledge-Based Economy which provides a progress report on how well Michigan is positioned to succeed in a flattening world. And Young Talent in the Great Lakes, an analysis of Michigan’s success in retaining and attracting college educated Millennials.

Mr. Glazer currently is heading efforts to:

• organize leadership to implement a new agenda for a knowledge-based  Michigan
• help start new high schools, at scale, that will prepare Detroit students, for college success

Prior to joining MFI, Mr. Glazer served as Deputy Director of the Michigan Department of Commerce during the Blanchard Administration. He received Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Michigan.   Lou can be contacted at lou (at) michiganfuture.org

To download a high resolution photo of Lou Glazer, click here.

Don Grimes, Research Consultant

Donald R. Grimes is a senior research specialist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research On Labor, Employment, and the Economy.  His primary research interests are in labor economics and economic forecasting.  For the past two decades, he has worked on forecasting labor market activity in the metropolitan areas of Michigan.  He has worked for many years with the Michigan departments of Commerce and Treasury and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation on policy analysis and evaluating economic strategies.  He has also participated in economic studies designed to assist firms in their location and expansion decisions.  He is co-director of a project to generate long-term economic and demographic projections for all of the counties of Michigan.

He works as a consultant with Michigan Future where he does all of its economic analysis and co-authors with Lou Glazer the annual progress report on Michigan’s Trasition to a Knowledge-Based Economy.

He has been involved in other research projects sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.   He is a partner with Regional Economic Assoicates and also works as a consultant for the Employment Research Corporation and Michigan Future, Inc.

Kim Trent, Student Recruitment Manager
kim@michiganfuture.org

Kim Trent is the student recruitment manager for Michigan Future. She uses her 20 years of experience as a communications professional to help Detroit parents and students choose quality educational experiences from Michigan Future’s network of small, academically rigorous high schools in Detroit.

A former print journalist, Trent has served as a top aide to several prominent elected officials. Most recently, she was Director of Governor Jennifer Granholm’s southeast Michigan office, a cabinet-level position in state government. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wayne State University.

Patrick Cooney, College Success Manager
Patrick@michiganfuture.org

In this position he supports school leaders in developing their college access and support programs.

Prior to joining Michigan Future Schools, Pat taught middle school math in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and Brooklyn, NY.  He has also worked in a policy capacity at the New York City Department of Education, and with Chicago Public Schools as an Education Pioneers Fellow.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and History from Boston College, and a master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

Sarah Szurpicki, Strategic Development Manager
sarah@michiganfuture.org

Sarah is a partner at New Solutions Group, LLC, a consulting firm devoted to smart, collaborative, innovative approaches for organizations serving the public good.  As Strategic Development Manager for Michigan Future Schools, Sarah will be helping to coordinate the capacity-building support offered to participating schools and reporting, evaluate how MFS is working, and think about how to make MFS more effective.

Sarah has significant strategic planning, program design, and coordination experience.  She is a co-founder and the former director of GLUE, the Great Lakes Urban Exchange, a network of young leaders who are committed to revitalizing the cities of the Great Lakes region.  Sarah is also the Project Coordinator of the Michigan Municipal League’s Let’s Save Michigan campaign devoted to advocacy for cities in Michigan.  In previous education work, Sarah served as the founding Director of the Finance and Operations for the Harlem Success Academy Charter School in New York.  She graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Environmental Science and Public Policy, where her honors thesis focused on public participation and activism in environmental science. She is a 2012 graduate of the Great Lakes Leadership Academy Leadership Advancement Program.

Contact Information
Michigan Future, Inc.
734-747-8120
PO Box 130416
Ann Arbor, MI. 48113
Twitter: @MichiganFuture
Facbeook: www.facebook.com/michiganfuture