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Faculty/Staff Announcements from Campus Connection

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  • March 25: Earn service hours at planting day, set for April 11

    Wednesday March 25, 2026
    A flyer titled “Planting Day.” The words “Saturday, April 11, 9 a.m.–noon, Tenn Gardens, Campus & Community” appear in green and red text. Surrounding the text are drawings of gardening tools, gloves, plants and two people kneeling and planting in soil. A large green watering can on the right contains a QR code with the label “Sign up here!” Below, text reads “Get 3 service hours!” and “Free lunch to follow!” along with an email for questions: “seckric@udmercy.edu.” Sponsors include Laudato Si Sustainability Group, Alumni Relations, University Ministry, TENN, and SACD/DCDC. UDM logo in the bottom left-hand corner and Laudato in right-hand corner.

    A flyer titled “Planting Day.” The words “Saturday, April 11, 9 a.m.–noon, Tenn Gardens, Campus & Community” appear in green and red text. Surrounding the text are drawings of gardening tools, gloves, plants and two people kneeling and planting in soil. A large green watering can on the right contains a QR code with the label “Sign up here!” Below, text reads “Get 3 service hours!” and “Free lunch to follow!” along with an email for questions: “seckric@udmercy.edu.” Sponsors include Laudato Si Sustainability Group, Alumni Relations, University Ministry, TENN, and SACD/DCDC. UDM logo in the bottom left-hand corner and Laudato in right-hand corner.For April Service Immersion Day, University Ministry is partnering with Alumni Relations to beautify the Titan Equity Nourish Network (TENN) gardens.

    Planting day is set for Saturday, April 11. Check-in will begin at 9 a.m. at the TENN gardens, located behind the Health Professions Facility, with a light breakfast of coffee and donuts. We will finish around noon with free lunch to follow. All are invited to come out and lend a hand.

    Participants will spend a day of service on the McNichols Campus and neighborhoods, earning three service hours, while learning about the importance of our TENN gardens for food access, sustainability and community building.

    This event is hosted by Laudato Si’ Student Group, University Ministry, TENN, Alumni Relations and the School of Architecture & Community Development and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center.

    Please contact University Minister Sammy Eckrich at seckric@udmercy.edu with any questions or for more information.

    Sign up for April Service Immersion.
  • March 25: Submissions to AI AgeWell Challenge due March 30

    Wednesday March 25, 2026
    A colorful flyer titled “AI AgeWell Challenge.” On the left side, large blue and orange text announces the challenge and a submission deadline of March 30, 2026. Below the title, three award categories are listed with icons: an Innovator Award for $1,000 plus a Tejara Innovation Hub membership, two Impact Awards offering $500 each, and a Feasibility Award offering $500. In the center-left, there is a large image of a white, humanoid robot facing an older adult. The robot is reaching out an arm toward the older adult. Both figures are standing in a softly lit environment with a blurred crowd in the background along with images of event attendees along the right side of the page. The bottom portion of the flyer includes images of plated food such as a burger, salad and a dessert, along with gift boxes and gift cards. Text along the bottom promotes great food, a guest speaker, games and activities, prizes, gift cards, over $1,000 in giveaways and networking. The overall design uses bright blues, oranges, and gold tones with sparkles and digital themed graphics throughout.

    The deadline is quickly approaching to submit your idea for the AI AgeWell Challenge.

    The AI Challenge returns for its third year to UDM’s McNichols Campus this April, bringing together students, faculty, community organizations and professionals to tackle real-world challenges using artificial intelligence.

    This is your opportunity to turn a creative concept into an AI-powered solution that helps older adults live healthier, safer and more independent lives.

    Teams will explore AI solutions that help people thrive at every stage of life, in areas such as:

    • Aging in place and independent living
    • Mental health, social connection and loneliness
    • Care coordination and caregiver support
    • Chronic disease management and wellness
    • Community access, equity and inclusion

    Challenge participants can win cash prizes and sponsor-supported awards, including:

    • Innovator Award: $1,000 plus Tejara Innovation Hub Membership — Sponsored by AACC/Tejara, this award honors the most creative and groundbreaking solution. The winning team will also receive mentorship, entrepreneurial support and a media spotlight on the AACC/Tejara platform.
    • Impact Awards: Two $500 prizes — Sponsored by PACE Southeast Michigan, these awards recognize solutions with strong potential for real-world impact, equity, accessibility and measurable benefit for older adults.
    • Feasibility/Market Readiness Award: $500 Prize — Awarded to the team with the clearest path to real-world deployment.

    Participants will work in interdisciplinary teams, receive mentorship, and finalists will be selected to present their ideas in the live pitch competition on Friday, April 10, from 5-9 p.m., in Room 114 of the Chemistry Building. The evening includes prizes, food and networking with campus and community partners. Students, faculty, mentors and sponsors are invited to participate.

    PACE Southeast Michigan’s mission is to keep chronically ill aging adults in their homes by supporting their medical, social, and overall wellbeing. They are a proud to sponsor of the AI AgeWell Challenge, which brings innovative solutions to help older adults live healthier, more independent lives.

    Come for the innovation, stay for the fun, enjoy a guest speaker, great food, fun activities, games, prizes, gift cards, more than $1,000 in giveaways and networking with professionals throughout the event.

    Submit your idea by March 30, 2026, and register now to attend.

    Sign up here.

    A colorful flyer titled “AI AgeWell Challenge.” On the left side, large blue and orange text announces the challenge and a submission deadline of March 30, 2026. Below the title, three award categories are listed with icons: an Innovator Award for $1,000 plus a Tejara Innovation Hub membership, two Impact Awards offering $500 each, and a Feasibility Award offering $500. In the center-left, there is a large image of a white, humanoid robot facing an older adult. The robot is reaching out an arm toward the older adult. Both figures are standing in a softly lit environment with a blurred crowd in the background along with images of event attendees along the right side of the page.

  • March 24: Poet Joanne Godley to launch award-winning collection at reading, March 25

    Tuesday March 24, 2026
    Headshot of Joanne Godley and her book cover, How the Black Panthers Fell from the Sky

    Headshot of Joanne Godley and her book cover, How the Black Panthers Fell from the SkyBroadside Lotus Press and the University of Detroit Mercy Press will host a virtual reading and conversation with Joanne Godley, author of How the Black Panthers Fell from the Sky and winner of the 2025 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award.

    The reading will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 25. Please register below to obtain Zoom link.

    Godley grew up in Detroit during the city’s industrial heyday and amidst the activism of the labor unions. Her memoir reflects on her teenage years, when, impatient with someday freedom songs and despairing at the horrors of the Vietnam war, she is swept up by the daring promise of those militant “cats” in black leather jackets. The poems remind readers of the hopefulness and exhilaration of Panther Party times as well as provide Godley’s mature reflections on the Party’s dismantlement.

    How the Black Panthers Fell from the Sky is the fourth co-publication of Broadside Lotus Press and UDM Press. It can be purchased at the Detroit Mercy bookstore and online through Hatteras printing.

    Register here.
  • March 24: University Ministry to host overnight social justice retreat, March 27-28

    Tuesday March 24, 2026
    A flyer for “Contemplatives in Action: Social Justice Retreat” at the Detroit Mercy. The event is scheduled for March 27–28. In the left upper corner is the University Ministry logo and headers reading “Maxis Spirituality Center” and “Hear from alumni and community partners.” The center displays a quote from Tricia Hersey’s Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto. Across the bottom of the page is a black and white photo of a group of people holding blank protest signs above their heads. In the right upper corner is a QR code labeled “Scan for info.” Contact information at the bottom reads: lawleran@udmercy.edu and seckric@udmercy.edu.

    University Ministry will hold an overnight Social Justice retreat from Friday, March 27, to Saturday, March 28, filled with speakers, reflection and rest. The theme of the retreat is Contemplatives in Action.

    Participants will meet on Detroit Mercy’s McNichols Campus 4:30 p.m. March 27, and head out to Maxis Spirituality Center for community building, fun, food and learning about some of the social justice issues of our day. The Maxis Center is located in Monroe, Michigan, 45 minutes south of the University.

    All Detroit Mercy undergraduate and graduate students are welcome. Transportation to and from the retreat is provided.

    This retreat will focus especially on immigration, nonviolence, activism, community care and mindfulness, and more. Through the theme of Contemplatives in Action, alumni and community partners will speak about how they have been inspired to do the work of justice. There will be opportunities for reflection as a group and individually.

    Those attending the El Paso, Texas-Mexico Border Immersion are required to attend this retreat as pre-trip formation. The El Paso group will also go over trip logistics while at the retreat.

    Deadline to register is March 20 (or request an extension).

    For questions or concerns, please contact University Ministry at ministry@udmercy.edu or 313-992-1560 or stop by the office, located in the Student Union Lower Level, to speak with Anna or Sammy.

    Register for retreat here.

    A flyer for “Contemplatives in Action: Social Justice Retreat” at the Detroit Mercy. The event is scheduled for March 27–28. In the left upper corner is the University Ministry logo and headers reading “Maxis Spirituality Center” and “Hear from alumni and community partners.” The center displays a quote from Tricia Hersey’s Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto. Across the bottom of the page is a black and white photo of a group of people holding blank protest signs above their heads. In the right upper corner is a QR code labeled “Scan for info.” Contact information at the bottom reads: lawleran@udmercy.edu and seckric@udmercy.edu.

  • March 24: Post-Graduate Certificate in Addiction Studies to hold virtual info session, March 25

    Tuesday March 24, 2026

    Learn more about Detroit Mercy’s Post-Graduate Certificate in Addiction Studies program by attending an upcoming virtual information session. During the session, you will meet the program director, watch a presentation and have the opportunity to ask questions.

    The next session will be offered on Wednesday, March 25 at noon.

    Register here.
  • March 24: Next installment of SACD lecture series set for March 25

    Tuesday March 24, 2026
    A flyer on purple background for SACD Lecture titled “Urban Neighborhoods: Strategic Intervention, Stability, & the Power of Street Level Practice” with speakers listed Patrick Morrissy and Wayne Meyer. Event details read: “March 25, 2026, 4:30–6 p.m. with 4:30 reception ahd 5 p.m. lecture in the Loranger Exhibition Space, SACD. Text states the event is “Open to All.” On the left lower corner is the Detroit Mercy SACD logo and the number “60+.” The Detroit Mercy logo appears on the lower right corner. Across the bottom text reads, “Ecological, Equitable, and Inspiring Places for All!”

    A flyer on purple background for SACD Lecture titled “Urban Neighborhoods: Strategic Intervention, Stability, & the Power of Street Level Practice” with speakers listed Patrick Morrissy and Wayne Meyer. Event details read: “March 25, 2026, 4:30–6 p.m. with 4:30 reception ahd 5 p.m. lecture in the Loranger Exhibition Space, SACD. Text states the event is “Open to All.” On the left lower corner is the Detroit Mercy SACD logo and the number “60+.” The Detroit Mercy logo appears on the lower right corner. Across the bottom text reads, “Ecological, Equitable, and Inspiring Places for All!”SACD will host Patrick Morrissy ’67 and Wayne Meyer on Wednesday, March 25, for the next installment of its lecture series with a presentation, titled Urban Neighborhoods: Strategic Intervention, Stability, and the Power of Street-Level Practice. The talk is a street-level view of neighborhood change rarely captured in textbooks.

    The lecture will be held in the Loranger Architecture Building Exhibition Space. A reception at 4:30 p.m. will precede the lecture, which begins at 5 p.m. All are invited to this event.

    Led by Detroit Mercy alumnus Patrick Morrissy, a pioneer in high-impact urban neighborhood intervention, this lecture will explore how HANDS, Inc., a small, disciplined nonprofit, worked with neighborhoods around Newark, N.J. Morrissy and colleague Wayne Meyer will discuss how strategic property acquisition and resident-centered community engagement produced durable neighborhood stability. They will also outline how this work influenced property laws, funding programs and community development finance and became the model for neighborhood stabilization work during the foreclosure crisis and remains relevant in Detroit today.

    Morrissy is the founder and former executive director of HANDS, Inc., where he pioneered a high-impact community development strategy that stabilized and revitalized declining urban neighborhoods in the two cities that border Newark, N.J. Morrissy is also a founder and former editor of Shelterforce, the online publication for affordable housing and community development practitioners, and is the author of the 2025 book, Staking Our Claim: The Fight for Better Housing in the 1970s.

    Meyer is president of Brick By Brick Training & Development Corporation, a nonprofit focused on building generational wealth through affordable homeownership and community-centered real estate investment. He served as president of New Jersey Community Capital, where he led a transformative strategy benefiting more than 100,000 individuals and families nationwide. At HANDS, Inc., Meyer led a place-based revitalization effort that developed more than 400 affordable housing units and catalyzed neighborhood stability and reinvestment.

  • March 24: Steven Brady to discuss Catholic perspectives on Vietnam War at CLASA Mercy Peace Forum, April 9

    Tuesday March 24, 2026
    A flyer for a Mercy Peace Forum webinar titled “Less Than Victory: American Catholics and the Vietnam War. A Conversation with Steven J. Brady.” The event is scheduled for Thursday, April 9, from 7- 8:30 p.m. The flyer features a blue background with dove artwork on the left. In the lower left-hand corner are sponsors: Peace History Society, Gwynedd Mercy University, Georgian Court University, University of Detroit Mercy and University of Saint Joseph. The speaker is listed as Steven J. Brady, Associate Professor at George Washington University. Below this text is an image of a book titled Less Than Victory with the author’s name. In the lower right-hand corner is a QR code with text “To Register: Scan the QR code.”

    Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive (CLASA) and Detroit Mercy collaborate with three other Mercy Universities — Gwynedd Mercy University, Saint Joseph’s University and Georgian Court University — along with the Peace History Society, to offer an online Mercy Peace Forum event each semester.

    The spring 2026 event is set for Thursday, April 9, at 7 p.m. All are invited to this free event.

    This webinar features Steven Brady, associate professor of History at George Washington University, who will discuss his new book Less Than Victory: American Catholics and the Vietnam War, and how an earlier generation of Americans responded to the moral dilemmas posed by a troubling war.

    This semester’s event is hosted by Michael Clinton, professor of History at Gwynedd Mercy University.

    For more information contact Clinton at clinton.michael@gmercyu.edu or Director of CLASA Gail Presbey at presbegm@udmercy.edu.

    Register for webinar here.

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Wednesday March 25, 2026

Detroit Mercy alumni Michael Vinarcik ’04 and Susan Wellman-Smith ’04 received honors from the Engineering Society of Detroit’s Affiliate Council at the 55th annual Gold Award Reception and Recognition on March 18. Vinarcik is an adjunct professor in the systems engineering graduate program at UDM and received the 2026 Gold Award, the society’s second-highest honor. It is awarded to someone who has made outstanding contributions to the fields of science and engineering. Wellman-Smith, an applications engineer at Ford, received two awards: the Past Affiliate Council Chair Award for her exceptional service as chair from 2024-25, and the Consistent Contributor Award from the Detroit section of the Society of Women Engineers. Both earned a Master of Product Development from UDM. Vinarcik has 30 years of experience in automotive and defense engineering and is nationally recognized for his work, including publications on model-based engineering. Wellman-Smith has spent more than 30 years in the automotive industry.

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