jews d
on the cover
in
the
New
Detroit
Leader
Rachel Tronstein Stewart
continues tradition of
Jewish involvement.
SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
R
Rachel Tronstein Stewart
at work in her Gardner-
White corporate office
10
July 5 • 2018
jn
CREDIT: JERRY ZOLYNSKY
achel Tronstein Stewart, 37, says she likes to be
involved in things. For Stewart, those are more
than casual words. She is president of Gardner-
White, her family’s furniture company, headquar-
tered in Auburn Hills, which operates 10 stores. This
January, she was named chairman of the board of New
Detroit Inc., a nonprofit leadership coalition working
to achieve racial understanding and racial equity in
Metro Detroit.
Stewart is the first woman to chair New Detroit,
succeeding William Taubman, who had led the orga-
nization since 2008. Four Jewish chairs preceded
them during New Detroit’s earlier years — Max M.
Fisher (1969), Stanley J. Winkelman (1971) and Alan
E. Schwartz (1982). Fisher and Winkelman, as well as
Paul Borman, Dr. Norman Drachler and Mel Ravitz,
were on the initial New Detroit Committee appointed
by Gov. George Romney, Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh
and Joseph L. Hudson Jr. following the 1967 civil disor-
der in Detroit. Since then, many other Jewish individu-
als have served on New Detroit’s board, committees
and staff.
As Stewart says, “We are a community that knows
what marginalization looks like, so we are natural
allies of African Americans and other minorities. As
Jews, we learn to lift others up.”
Stewart became a New Detroit board member in
2014 on WDIV station manager Marla Druz’s recom-
mendation. Since then, Stewart has focused on New
Detroit’s strategic planning and its efforts to expand
job opportunities. “Race clearly plays a role in employ-
ment,” she says.
Racial equity is not a new concern for Stewart. She
was president of the University of Michigan student
body during the years when the university’s contro-
versial affirmative action policies were under judi-
cial review, culminating in two U.S. Supreme Court
verdicts. She earned a bachelor’s degree at U-M and
subsequently a master’s degree in economics from the
London School of Economics.
“Rachel is brilliant and committed to our issue
of racial justice,” says New Detroit President Shirley
Stancato, who will retire at the end of this year. “She is
especially interested in issues of employment.
“The income gap between African Americans and
Caucasians is the same now as in 1967 and New
Detroit is focused on closing that gap. Rachel’s partici-
pation on the strategic planning committee has a lot
to do with that,” Stancato says.
Stewart was a presenter for New Detroit’s
Opportunity Workforce Development Initiative and
participated in an Opportunity Exchange that brought
together employers with 50 job seekers. Stewart hired
four individuals, Stancato says.
New Detroit hasn’t taken a formal position on
Ford’s purchase of the former central train station in
Corktown and its potential for new jobs in the city.
Stewart says, “In the end, there’s always nuance to how
things are executed, but it’s hard to
believe that converting a formerly
abandoned building to a major hub
could be anything other than posi-
tive for the city.”
Under its new strategic plan, New
Detroit will focus on race as well as
advocacy and education concern-
ing such issues as adequate funding
Shirley Stancato
of public schools in Detroit and the
proposed work requirements for Medicaid recipients.
“Race is playing so much of a role that we don’t
acknowledge. You can’t have a healthy community
without racial understanding,” Stewart states.
Taubman first met Stewart when she joined New
Detroit’s board. Her work on the strategic planning
process “convinced me that she was the right person. I
was impressed at how thoughtful she was.
“She has great excitement and enthusiasm and has
the millennial ‘can-do’ approach. She is committed
to the issues of improving race relations in Southeast
Michigan. She has more of an academic and govern-
ment background, which gives her a three-dimension-
al understanding. Rachel will steer New Detroit into
new directions that will build on our predecessors.
New Detroit is less program-driven and more focused
on policy,” Taubman adds.
ENVIRONMENT AND FAMILY
Stewart has a longtime interest in environmental
and clean energy issues. After college, she worked on
clean energy projects at the Clinton Global Initiative
in New York. In 2009, she was appointed to a position