- So talk about your journey as a developer in the city.

And again, talk about it in the context of these kind of dual barriers that you face.

It's tough for African-Americans and other people of color to be developers, successful developers.

Also tough for women.

How did you get started and then get us to where you are with Develop Detroit?

- I actually am a bit of an unexpected developer.

I didn't grow up dreaming of being a real estate developer.

There are a lot of people who have that path.

Mine was, mine was very different.

I actually spent a number of years working on Wall Street, and came back to Detroit about 10 years ago for what I thought was a temporary consulting job.

And not having been in Detroit for a while, I really fell in love with the energy here and what was going on.

And there just were so many people who were moving here and moving back here who were just trying to figure out like, how do we move Detroit to a better place?

And I did have a finance background.

I did have a Wall Street banking background had a little bit of a land use background, but really I just wanted to be a part of what was going on here.

And so I worked with a group of people to launch what has now become Develop Detroit back in 2015.

And, you know, it's a really tough business.

I suppose you could say being a woman doesn't make it easier.

I have to admit, I've spent most of my career in male dominated industries, and so I think I maybe just have a really thick skin kind of around the ways in which gender intersect with work.

But whether you're a woman or a man, this is, this business is not for the faint of heart.

- It's not, it's definitely not.

So, I want you to talk a little about this team that you put together and work with.

I think that's a really important part of the story for everybody, is the people you rely on, the people you trust, and the people you feel can help push you forward.

Especially when you're taking a risk like starting your own company.

So talk a little more about how you put that team together and who made it up.

- So the organization that I lead, Develop Detroit, we are, we're actually structured as a nonprofit, and we are a mission focused organization.

So right now we have 10 people that work here.

And it is, it's a group of people who really, really care about Detroit, and really care about the work of providing quality housing to people regardless of their income.

And so the folks on my team, I just, I feel so just blessed to work with this group of people, but they're quite frankly folks who could be doing other types of development.

Maybe for for-profit entities, more money seeking entities.

But the mission and this ideal that everyone deserves high quality housing really resonates.

And so it is a pretty technical business.

And so the people that are on the team, they are really proficient with finance, they're proficient with Excel.

I think more importantly, this is, like our team is a group of people who don't get discouraged by complications or challenges.

It's really for problem solvers, and people who kind of get going by thinking about like how can I overcome this, today's obstacle or today's challenge in the work.