MARCH 9 • 2023 | 35

continued on page 36

personal values,” she said. “Now, it’s our 
generation’s turn to plant seeds for those 
to come. 
“That’s really what motivates me to 
do what I’m doing — it’s acting as the 
next generation for the generation that is 
going to come after,” DePriest said. 
I met DePriest at Chroma — a fittingly 
hip coworking and event space in 
Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction where her 
board had recently met — to learn how 
she and NEXTGen Detroit will ready 
today’s 20- and 30-somethings to invest 
in the future of our community. Here’s 
what she had to say.

A NEW TIME, NEW NEEDS 
NEXTGen Detroit was born out of a 
need to retain and attract young adults 
to Detroit at a time of a significant 
economic crisis [2011]. NEXTGen 
Detroit evolved to keep people here, 
to make sure they have programming 
and to make sure they had access to 
community leadership and involvement 
opportunities. 
But now we’re in a totally different 
time. This is really the next generation for 
NEXTGen Detroit. We know people are 
here. We know people want to keep their 
families here and are having amazing 
career opportunities here. So, how can 
we build up an infrastructure that meets 
those people where they’re at? 
There are two big challenges that I see. 
The first is, peoples’ time is at a premium. 
How do we make our programs 
meaningful so that people want to 

spend their time there? The other major 
challenge is communicating to young 
people the value in having a traditional 
community infrastructure. Why does it 
make sense that we have a Federation? 
Why does it make sense that we have a 
convening body for our community? 
We’ve been able to shift our focus a 
little bit away from attracting young 
people to Detroit and really focus on 
building and retaining the community 
we have here, which has been exciting 
for me because it’s very reflective of 
my experience. I grew up in the Metro 
Detroit area and was very involved in 
the traditional Jewish community. I was 
a Tamarack camper for my whole life. I 
went to Jewish Academy. I had Hillel at 
undergrad [at University of Michigan]. 
I had all those experiences, which was 
why it was so meaningful for me to come 
back and make sure that I had a place in 
leadership and ensuring access for others. 

A BOARD THAT WORKS 
This space, Chroma, is where the board 
kicked off our year together. In the past, 
I think we would have taken our board 
retreat as an opportunity to socialize —
maybe we would have done an activity. 
This year, we said, “We’re going to work.” 
I feel very fortunate that the Executive 
Committee that I work with at NEXTGen 
is largely people who are working full-
time or have families of their own. I feel 
like everyone’s kind of on the same page. 
[They] are truly, significantly invested 
both with their time and their resources 
in our community and are leading at the 
highest levels. 
I think that [professionalism] has 
created an environment where we’re 
looking at things through a different 
lens and sometimes seeking a more 
sophisticated approach to a question, 
dialing in on something that [others] 
might not. I think that is largely because 
of the working nature of our board. 
Something that I’m very proud of is 
that our Executive Committee has a 
significant number of women — women 
on our executive committee, at this 
point, outnumber men. There’s definitely 
attention to gender parity on the 
NEXTGen Detroit Board. We also focus 
heavily on ensuring that our chairs for 
events come from different backgrounds 

because we want to meet different 
segments of the community. It’s not just 
“nice.” It’s what we’re responsible for 
doing and it also ensures best outcomes. 
I think that’s the case across the board 
with Federation —there’s definitely been 
attention paid to making sure that we 
have people from all different segments 
of the community because best outcomes 
come from that. 

AN APPETITE FOR DETAILS 
Particularly as a woman leading this 
organization, I think one of my strengths 
is attention to detail. I think a lot of 
women would tell you the same thing, 
just because we have to keep a lot of 
balls up in the air at the same time. We’re 
asking different and exciting questions to 
ensure that everyone feels comfortable at 
our events. 
A question I heard myself asking 
repeatedly for events this year was, 
“Do we have an exciting non-alcoholic 
beverage option?” That matters. There 
are tons of people who don’t drink; 
there’s also a large group of women in 
the community who are expecting or 
immediately postpartum and are not 
drinking. So, I want to make sure we’re 
catering to that group of the community. 

MEETING YOUNG PEOPLE WHERE 
THEY ARE… 
Young Jewish adults are everywhere — 
we’re Downtown, we’re in Oak Park, we’re 
in the Woodward corridor suburbs, but 
we’re also out in Bloomfield Hills and 
West Bloomfield. 
We have people on the young, 

The newly 
installed 
president at the 
NEXTGen Detroit 
annual meeting 
 in 2022

With NEXTGen Detroit 
Director Tomer Moked

