JEANETTE PIERCE IS A SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR AND LIFELONG CITY RESIDENT WHO GREW UP IN THE CITY’S EASTSIDE. SHE IS A DATA NERD WHO LOVES CITIES AND IS AN ENGAGING STORYTELLER WITH A PASSION FOR PROVIDING CONTEXT AROUND COMPLEX ISSUES.
She founded the City Institute to help cities attract and retain residents by making sure people feel connected to where they live and work. Jeanette helps cities tell their story so more people not only care about where they live, but actually love where they live. When people love where they live they are more invested in supporting small businesses, volunteering at nonprofit organizations, collaborating with neighbors throughout the city and building an equitable and thriving city.
Since 2005, Jeanette has used experiential learning and non-traditional tours to help more than 150,000 locals and newcomers in Detroit love where they live and work by teaching them about Detroit’s assets, small businesses, historic neighborhoods, city planning & development policies and innovative solutions to the challenges the city faces. By providing this deeper understanding, residents and stakeholders are inspired to be a part of building an equitable and thriving city.
Jeanette continues to work with companies in Detroit to help their employees have a deeper understanding and connection to Detroit. She combines observations of current conditions, historical facts and recent statistics with powerful anecdotes and individual stories of Detroiters to help clients understand the complexity and dynamism of the city of Detroit.
City Institute offers learning journeys & tours, speaking engagements & workshops and consulting services to helps other cities get more of their residents to love where they live.
Jeanette believes that when more people are informed and engaged in shaping a place’s future, there is a much better chance of that city becoming an equitable and thriving place for all.
She has presented at more than 200 events including Atlantic Magazine’s CityLab Conference, Governor’s Economic Summit, Downtown Las Vegas Annual Meeting and the Oregon Main Street Conference. She was honored as one of the Top 50 Women Leaders of Michigan in 2022, as one of the Top Forty under 40 by Crain’s Detroit Business, as a Thirty in their 30’s by DBusiness Magazine, and was awarded the Shining Light Future Leader Award from the Detroit Free Press as well as receiving many other recognitions and awards.
She serves on the Boards of the Michigan Municipal League Foundation and Detroit Historical Society.
She has a bachelor’s of arts degree in communication from Aquinas College, and lives with her husband and toddler triplets on Detroit’s Eastside.
