Social Entrepreneurs Speak with Challenge Detroit Fellows at TechTown

On Friday February 7th, 2020, I was invited to be a panelist at TechTown Detroit to discuss social entrepreneurship. It was formally called “The Leadership Panel on Social Entrepreneurship” and we were invited to speak to a group of young professionals who are also known as the Challenge Detroit Fellows. From their website:

Challenge Detroit cultivates diverse, innovative, community-minded leaders from the city and across the country, fostering their talents to support local initiatives that move Detroit forward.

It was very nice to be thought of as someone who could make an impression on these Challenge Detroit Fellows and help them grow into more community-minded leaders.

I was invited by Shelley Danner, the Program Director for Challenge Detroit, and she also invited some influential leaders to the program. They include David Merritt of Merit Goodness and Pastor of the Straight Gate International church, Katrina Turnbow of KanopiSocial, and a mother-daughter entrepreneur team behind Black Girl MATHgic, Brittany A. (Sanders) Rhodes and Veneda Sanders.

We tried to share insights with the Challenge Detroit Fellows that would be meaningful for their work in Detroit and for their professional development.

I’ve been meaning to write about this experience for some time now, and I had a few moments to put together this blog post. But the bottom line is that I miss doing this sort of work, meeting with community leaders and meeting with emerging young professionals, and helping them to take the next step on their career path while learning from them and my peers.

It’s impossible to count how many events like this that the Coronavirus Pandemic has prevented us from engaging in, but I’m looking forward to doubling down on future events when the Covid-19 virus passes us by, after we flatten the curve and get back to normal life. I miss the handshakes, hugs, fist bumps, and pats on the back, the encouragement for the journey that you can only get in person.

Stay safe out there,

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

Speakers for The Leadership Panel on Social Entrepreneurship for Challenge Detroit, from left to right, David Merritt, Veneda Sanders, Brittany A. (Sanders) Rhodes, Paul Thomas, MD, Shelley Danner, and Katrina Turnbow.

Speakers for The Leadership Panel on Social Entrepreneurship for Challenge Detroit, from left to right, Katrina Turnbow, Paul Thomas, MD, Brittany A. (Sanders) Rhodes, Veneda Sanders, and David Merritt. Not pictured and moderating the panel is Shelley Danner, the Program Director of Challenge Detroit.