Craig Regester

Long-time community-based practitioner and educator with over 30 years experience initiating and stewarding reciprocal partnerships among university faculty, students, community organizations and everyday people in Detroit and southeastern Michigan.

Adjunct Lecturer - University of Michigan - 1/2012 - Present

• Created and teach two foundational classes in the Semester in Detroit curriculum: 1) Community-based internship - an individualized practicum experience; my primary role is to initiate and to develop productive and impactful relationships between undergraduate students and community-based organizations around Detroit. And 2) Internship Reflection Seminar - an interdisciplinary course that explores theories of social change by challenging students to compare their personal ideologies about change-making with the values, strategies and practices used by their internship organizations.
• Since 2014, I have led Semester in Detroit in organizing community classroom educational series - known as Detroiters Speak - that are free and open to the public. In recent years, we have collaborated with Wayne State University's Department of African Studies, the Detroit Equity Action Lab, the Cass Corridor Commons and the General Baker Institute to bring Detroit community members, U-M + WSU students, faculty and staff together. The format varies from traditional panels to poetry readings to trips to jazz and cultural clubs throughout Detroit. Course themes have focused on Education Reform to the Contemporary Labor Movement to Policing in Detroit. Winner of the 2017 Provost's Teaching Innovation Prize.

Southeast Michigan Coalition on Occupational Safety and Health (SEMCOSH) - 1/01-9/02

Training/Outreach Director - Detroit, MI  

• Program Director for health and safety training and advocacy organization. Worked directly with industry, community groups and local unions facilitating hazardous waste operations and emergency response (HAZWOPER) training for workers per OSHA federal regulations. Successfully managed the programmatic, grant reporting and administration requirements for OSHA, NIEHS, and EPA supported programs. Coordinated the grant renewal proposal process and successfully renewed a five-year NIEHS Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program. Primary creator and developer of new $150,000 Federal OSHA grant that focused on community outreach to Latino landscape workers in Southwest Detroit.

Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development (LA SED) - 2/95-1/97

Youth Counselor - Detroit, MI

• Bilingual youth counselor for non-profit agency serving the needs of Latino youth in the Southwest Detroit community. Led weekly individual and family counseling sessions to empower youth to be responsible, productive young adults. Advocate on behalf of youth for employment searches, school problems, and court appearances. Organized youth grant-writing team in successful receipt and implementation of $10,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan for cross-cultural community-service project in rural Virginia.

Michigan League of Conservation Voters Education Fund - 5/08-10/11

Development Consultant - Ann Arbor, MI

• Advise and consult Executive Director on fundraising and development strategy for this statewide 501(c)(3) environmental advocacy organization. Write grant proposals and inquiries to state and national foundations.

GrantWorks Detroit, Inc. - 8/03 - 3/08 

Contractual Grantwriter - Detroit, MI

• Sub-contractor for Detroit-based non-profit consulting firm. Have worked on dozens of grant-writing and fundraising projects for Detroit-area non-profit organizations. Clients included: Alternatives For Girls, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Metro. Detroit, Heritage Works, Jefferson East Business Association, Oakland University School of Nursing, Planned Parenthood of Southeast Michigan, Southwest Solutions, Inc., Think Detroit/PAL, and Warren/Conner Development Coalition.

Alternatives For Girls - 10/98 - 1/01

Assistant Director of Marketing and Development - Detroit, MI 

• Assist in coordination of a comprehensive fund-raising strategy for non-profit agency with a $2M annual budget. Newsletter editor, fundraising organizer, and facilitator for Public Relations Committee and Annual Dinner Planning Committee. Primary work involved writing, developing and submitting grant proposals to various governmental and private funding sources; public relations work included press releases, annual appeal and report, and ghost written articles. Chief writer and conceptual developer of agency website. Wrote template proposal language and consulted with the Capital Campaign Director for the successful $4.5 million campaign to build a new facility.

Angela Dillard - Chair, History Department, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Baba Jamon Jordan - Official Historian, City of Detroit

Nora Salas - Associate Professor of History, GVSU and Director of the Kutsche Office of Local History