Detroit’s workforce development head Nicole Sherard-Freeman is departing the city to become COO of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
Sherard-Freeman, 56, will join the Community Foundation in the newly created role effective July 10, overseeing donor services, finance, grantmaking services, information technology, program teams and its economic development effort, the New Economy Initiative.
“We are thrilled to have a proven leader with Nicole’s experience join the Community Foundation,” said Community Foundation President Richard DeVore, in a release.
“She has established herself as a results-oriented collaborator across public-private partnerships, with a commitment to under-resourced communities and communities of color. We look forward to having Nicole join our leadership team at this exciting time when we are charting our future strategic plan.”
With Sherard-Freeman focused on overseeing operations, DeVore said he will focus on developing the foundation’s new strategic plan, supporting fundraising and engaging in more advocacy.
Sherard-Freeman will bring more than 25 years of experience across corporate, nonprofit and governmental organizations to the new role. She currently serves as group executive of jobs, economy and executive director of workforce development and Detroit at Work.
Sherard-Freeman’s work to integrate economic and workforce development has led to more than doubling the number of employers who give hiring priority to Detroiters in their Detroit facilities since 2021, including large employers like Stellantis, Michigan Central Ford Train Station, General Motors Co., Amazon and major automotive suppliers, along with small and midsize businesses in commercial corridors and neighborhoods.
Before that, Sherard-Freeman was president and CEO of Detroit Employment Solutions Corp., and from 2014-2018, managing director for Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, a national nonprofit that led JPMorgan Chase’s New Skills at Work portfolio in Detroit, among other programs.
She also held leadership positions in banking, global business-to-business services and was a successful entrepreneur in Metro Detroit for three years.
She serves on the boards of organizations including the Governor’s State of Michigan Workforce Development Board ,WorkRise: An Urban Institute Initiative, Detroit Employment Solutions Corp. and Detroit Economic Growth Corp. She is also the mayor’s representative on the Downtown Development Authority, chairs the Job Committee of the Mayor’s Equity Council and serves as the mayor’s appointee to the U.S. Conference of Mayors — Workforce Development Council.
A Detroit native, Sherard-Freeman holds a bachelor of science in business administration and has completed graduate studies in organizational management and development at Fielding Graduate University.
She was a lead researcher and co-author of Detroit’s Untapped Talent: Partnerships and Pathways to Success, and Detroit’s Untapped Talent: Jobs and On-ramps Needed, companion research briefs often cited by local workforce experts. And she has served as an expert witness for the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, recently testifying before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee.
She is a Crain’s Notable Women in Nonprofits alumni, a 2018 Michigan Chronicle Woman of Excellence, a member of the 2021 class of Crain’s Most Influential Women in Michigan and an Axios Detroit 2022 Power Player.
Since its inception in 1984, the Community Foundation has distributed more than $1.4 billion through more than 85,000 grants to nonprofits in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, Washtenaw, St. Clair and Livingston counties.
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