Detroit Mercy is currently leading two Michigan Health Endowment Fund-supported projects that model what real community-university partnership looks like. The Detroit AI Health Equity Collaborative, led by the Center for Augmenting Intelligence in Urban Health at the College of Health Professions, is building community-owned AI infrastructure to support health navigation and service coordination in Detroit’s most underserved neighborhoods. The People’s Path to Wellness, led by the Titan Equity Nourish Network, CHP, and residents in Fitzgerald and Martin Park, is establishing a resident-directed Neighborhood Wellness Council rooted in Afrocentric, culturally grounded health practices.  This roundtable brings both projects into the room together for the first time: project leads, CHP faculty, and most importantly the community members who shaped them. Participants will hear directly from the community, explore the shared principles behind both projects, and leave with concrete strategies for building their own community-engaged research, teaching, or service work. Facilitated by the College of Health Professions Grants Officer, this session celebrates UDM’s 150th anniversary by showing what place-based, mission-driven partnership looks like in practice.

Learning Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1. Describe two distinct models of community-university partnership and the shared values that connect them. 2. Identify concrete strategies for centering community voice, lived experience, and self-governance in funded projects. 3. Articulate the role of shared governance, trust-building, and cultural responsiveness in health equity work. 4. Identify at least one next step to connect their own work to community-engaged research or programming.

Presenters: Stacey Stevens, Philip Olla, Chelsea Manning, Karen Mihelich, Sara Gifford

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