The first time Nate Brown saw an African-American Chef was at 25 years of age. “I mean, that’s crazy, right?” he asked. “I was just flipping through the TV channels and I stopped at Chef G. Garvin’s show and this dude was cooking! And he had a pretty cool watch.” Brown went out and bought the ingredients needed to make the same meal and he got to work. It wasn’t the best, but it was a start. “For weeks after, I found myself thinking about cooking all day at work,” he laughs. Then, Brown made a dish of his own and secretly put it on the table at a family open house. “I snuck it up there and then just sat back and watched. Everybody was enjoying it, so I finally told them I was the one who made it. That’s when I decided to become a chef. That was it.” Brown studied culinary arts at Mott Community College before completing his education at The Art Institute of Michigan, graduating in 2010.

Appointed executive director in 2014, Tauzzari Robinson has held various key roles with Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Flint since 2009. Having been a Club member as a kid in Ohio, he credits that experience as having a significant impact on his life.

Passionate, creative, and learner. Whether it’s my work at the AAHC or organizing in my community, I have found that my passion not only brings more meaning to my work but also sustains it. This passion has also allowed me to bring forward creative solutions to the challenges that arise within our organization and with my work on the ground. In every role I take on, I have learned that when we tap into our community’s expertise, talent and ideas, we can bring forward meaningful change that will allow us to build a transformative and sustainable future together. My passion, creativity and commitment to lifelong learning have better positioned me in my work as an organizer and my future as executive director.

In May of 2018, G.H.O.S.T. (Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team) was initiated by Genesee County Sheriff  (when he was undersheriff) with authority granted by then-Sheriff Robert Pickell. The County Sheriff had been involved with a West Coast international organization that supports enforcement of human trafficking laws and the rescue of sex trafficking victims through the use of special forces. A year prior, he took a trip to Haiti where he worked with an intel-gathering group. Some women from Europe had been promised employment at a five-star resort in the Dominican Republic and instead, their passports were taken from them, they were put on a bus and shipped to Haiti where they were trafficked for sex 24 hours-a-day.

In November 2021, the Flint & Genesee Group announced the winners of the Art of Achievement Awards at a ceremony held at The Capitol Theatre in Downtown Flint attended by more than 450 people. Winners of these prestigious awards are selected from nominations gathered throughout the year. Last year, 16 awards were presented to businesses, hospitality professionals and community leaders for their significant contributions to the region’s success in 2021.

Karen Church, CEO of ELGA Credit Union, has been selected as Cityzen of the Year! She is the third person MCM has recognized as one who is an advocate for the community and goes above and beyond to make it a better place through volunteerism and service. And this is a very special year for Church, as she will retire in February 2022. Church sat down with MCM to talk about her love for her community, her years with the credit union, her service in the City of Flint and plans for the future. “I’m a little bit sad,” Church admits. “ELGA CU has been my life for 45 years.”

Born and raised in Flint, Angela Hood-Beauregard, Executive Director of the Flint & Genesee Literacy Network (FGLN) is proud to be a product of Flint Community Schools. She has traveled the world but chose to work and live in Flint. In her position with FGLN, she is able to share her passion for the importance of reading and literacy. The leader of the FGLN since 2019, Hood-Beauregard is currently pursuing her PhD at Michigan State University. “I am a lifelong student and working with the network was the perfect opportunity to merge my passion for learning into making a difference,” she shares.

Growing up, Royce Stephens learned a thing or two about the motivating effect that sports could have on youth. “My father was the leader of my Boy Scout troop and he would teach us from the handbook for the first half of our meeting and allow us to play basketball for the second half,” he says. “When he stopped letting us play basketball, kids stopped coming. He used basketball to provide an incentive to education.” While playing basketball at Hamady High School, Stephens learned the hard way when he decided to sit out his junior year and in doing so, suffered a drop in his grades. “I realized how important sports were to me and I knew what I had to do. I turned it around quickly,” he adds.

Student at Central Michigan University (CMU), 19-year-old Flint native Lydia Taylor has been named one of the top finalists in the seventh annual Breakthrough Junior Challenge, a global competition for students that was designed to inspire creative thinking about science.

Jashell Mitchell is perfectly content to work in the background – in fact, that’s the whole point. “It’s in the name of the foundation. We like to work behind the scenes,” she says. “We want the focus to be on those we support. We would rather be invisible.”

I’ve always been very creative, so as a kid, I liked pretending to teach in imaginary classrooms, visualizing working in an office or photographing the planet for National Geographic. I also loved the art of Walt Disney. As a part-time position to help pay for my master’s degree, I did have the chance to open and work at the Disney Store at the Genesee Valley Mall. Sharing the magic of Disney was so enjoyable, I stayed on for over ten years. Much of what I learned through that experience stayed with me and helped shape my leadership style.

The Sparkle Pink Girls Club is a nonprofit organization with a mission of building confidence and self esteem in girls aged 3-13, and empowering them to make better, bigger choices that set them up for a powerful life. Founded in 2007 by Deria Brown of Flint, it has grown to become a national organization with chapters in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Nevada.