Tricia Keith, the President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Joi Harris, the President and COO of DTE Energy, a Fortune 500 company and Cynthia J. Pasky, the Founder, President and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions, were honored with leadership awards on March 21 at the Colony Club in downtown Detroit.
The program dubbed, Women’s History Month Power Breakfast Forum Series under the theme Women in Corporate and Economic Leadership was organized by The PuLSE Institute, Detroit’s national and non-partisan anti-poverty think tank. It featured Keith and Harris as the speakers and Pasky served as co-moderator of the Q&A forum, where two of southeast Michigan’s female business leaders spoke extensively about their lives and their rise to prominence in the corporate world. The session examined the need for more women in leadership positions of influence with the resources and decision-making power to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice.
The awards were presented by Bankole Thompson, the founder and dean of The PuLSE Institute and a nationally acclaimed journalist and standard-bearer for economic justice issues, whose transformative work on race, democracy, and poverty inspires and empowers people to act with courage and compassion. Thompson is a twice-a-week opinion columnist at The Detroit News and host of the weekly national podcast, Bankole’s Nation. His latest book, Fiery Conscience, which was featured by Forbes and also listed as a reference book in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the world’s leading repository on the Black experience captures his decades of work as a force to reckon with in the fight against inequality.
At the sold-out event, which was a spectacular celebration of excellence and acknowledgement of the crucial role that women play in advancing society, both Keith and Harris received the institute’s Pioneering Leadership Awards for their outstanding achievements and for being the first women to be tapped for their respective leadership roles at their companies. Pasky was given the Global Innovation Award for her accomplishments as a pacesetter and conscientious Detroit business leader and for creating a company such as Strategic Staffing Solutions that now operates in 26 nations.
The event also recognized other trailblazers for their significant contributions through leadership and service in the community and whose work collectively reflects the vision of the institute.
Attorney Tina M. Patterson, Esq, the President and Director of Research of The PuLSE Institute received the Economic Justice Award for her leadership of the institute and for championing issues that are central to its mission.
Dr. C. Paschal Eze, the Board Chairman of the institute was given the Global Compassion Award for his work in not only helping guide the vision of The PuLSE Institute, but also for inspiring change and making positive difference in the global community.
Louis E. James, the Chairman and CEO of SEEL, an energy efficiency company as well as the Chairman of JASCO International, a transportation and logistics group, received the institute’s Entrepreneurial Excellence Award for his contributions as a social impact business leader and helping to empower marginalized communities.
The final presentation, the Courage of Conscience Award, was posthumously given to the late Dewan Mitchell, a longtime Detroit entertainment and production executive, who was a former member of the board of The PuLSE Institute. Mitchell, who died in 2022, had more than two decades of entertainment experience that took him to the forefront of the music industry in the nation.
As an industry leader, Mitchell focused on making capital investments in time and effort and became one of the most sought after representatives for one of the country’s largest ethnic promotion firms, Alan Haymon Entertainment, Inc. He worked with legendary artists such as Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston and Patti LaBelle. He later spent 10 years at the world-renowned Detroit Opera House as director of booking and events, where he developed new programming to bring more visibility to the theater as well as attract a more diverse audience. He was honored for his longtime commitment to issues of equity and justice. His sister Althea Graham received the award on his behalf.
“All the recipients of The PuLSE Institute’s leadership award this year prove that social change is possible,” Thompson said. “They have demonstrated that with determination that we can advance equality and fairness including gender equality across the entire spectrum of society. They have sought to change the trajectory of their organizations and communities for the better and they have shown a commitment to the redeeming and enduring vision for economic justice.”
Congratulations on what seems to have been an amazing event💐💐