Next American City Speaker Series Event - April 8

Model D will host Next American City magazine as the national publication brings its Urbanexus series here. The April 8 event will be at College for Creative Studies in Midtown. Space is limited, and you must sign up here to attend.

The topic is "Who Moves to Detroit?" We'll discuss how Detroit can reposition itself as a city of opportunity, who is moving in, what are trends in housing and development, and what are barriers and opportunities to create a broader movement to Detroit.

The panel event is free. There is a VIP reception to follow -- $15 if you subscribe for the magazine here in advance, $20 at the door. The reception cost includes a year subscription to Next American City magazine.

Space is limited for the panel as well as the reception, so you must sign up in advance to attend. Sign up and details are here.

The event is sponsored by Next American City, Model D and the Hudson-Webber Foundation.

The panel features smart, creative people who have chosen Detroit as their home:

• Kirsten Ussery is a North Carolina native and director of communications for Detroit Renaissance, which provides leadership from CEOs across the region, working together to accelerate the economic transformation of Detroit and Southeast Michigan. She previously worked in communications for automotive-related companies. She lives in Detroit's West Village neighborhood, is on the neighborhood association board, and she does public relations work for The Villages Community Development Corporation.
• Luis Croquer is a recent Detroit transplant, a few months ago he joined the city's new Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit as its director. Raised in El Salvador by his diplomat father, he has worked and lived all over the world. He came to Detroit from New York City's El Museo Del Barrio, where he oversaw its special projects. He was a Fulbright scholar and studied at the State University of New York at Purchase. He also received a BA in anthropology and communications at Goldsmith's College in London.
• Toby Barlow is an ad man, author and Detroit convert. He's an executive creative director at the JWT Team Detroit advertising agency. The former New Yorker now lives in a spectacular Mies van der Rohe-designed home in Detroit's historic Lafayette Park neighborhood. His modern masterpiece was was recently featured on the cover of Dwell Magazine. Barlow is also an author, having penned his first novel, Sharp Teeth, and has received much acclaim for the work.
• Editor-In-Chief of Chicago-based design magazine CS Interiors, Meghan McEwen moved from Chicago to Detroit four years ago in search of a pared-down lifestyle and opportunities to be involved in the revitalization of Detroit. She and her husband renovated an old Victorian in Corktown, where they work, live and play with their two young sons. She spends free time volunteering as a New Wave board member at MOCAD, cultivating a vegetable garden in her backyard, and riding her bike around the city with her three-year-old strapped to the back.
• Moderator David O. Egner is a St. Louis native who as a long history of service to Detroit. He is president and CEO of the Hudson-Webber Foundation, a private grantmaking foundation with assets of $130 million, offering grants primarily within the City of Detroit with a focus on the revitalization of the urban core. Among his many other civic involvements, Egner serves as chair of Michigan Future, the Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and Leadership Detroit.