About

VISION STATEMENT
A sustainable, mutually beneficial relationship between Oakland University and the City of Pontiac

MISSION STATEMENT
The Oakland University-Pontiac Initiative is advancing the vitality of Pontiac while enhancing experiential learning opportunities for Oakland University students. Promotes civic engagement in the community. In addition, it calls upon a broad network of individuals and organizations to achieve these goals by using appropriate infrastructure, human and financial resources. Oakland University, the city of Pontiac and its residents are more than neighbors defined by geographic proximity. We share a mission, and a sense of community. And, we share a future.

COLLABORATIVE GOALS

• To be a catalyst for relationship building and collaborative projects involving groups from Pontiac and Oakland University
• To promote the University's research agenda with a focus on mutually beneficial projects that enhance both communities
• To enhance the curricular and co-curricular programs by connecting students with Pontiac-based opportunities for service learning, internships, volunteer experiences, recreation and arts
• To support the city's Economic Development Strategic Plan: Pontiac Moving Forward
• To connect Pontiac-based entities with OU faculty, students, programs and resources
• To facilitate consistent, accurate and timely communication between Pontiac and the University communities
• To identify and secure human and financial resources (including external grants) needed to ensure a sustainable model for community engagement

Oakland University and the Pontiac community are proud to celebrate a decade of working together to enrich our communities. The OU-Pontiac Initiative (OU-PI) embraces a network of leaders from the City of Pontiac, Oakland University and the local community who serve as pillar leads for six focus areas: Arts and Culture, Birth to Grade 16 Education, Building Capacity for Nonprofits and Neighborhoods, Civic Engagement, Economic and Workforce Development, and Health Care and Wellness.

Through the OU-PI six pillar areas, we have mobilized OU faculty, staff and students to connect with the Pontiac community to identify objectives that drive success. Our impactful programs noted throughout the report have not only benefited children, families and organizations, but also have allowed OU students to thrive in community-based learning opportunities, better preparing them for post-graduation and a rewarding career. 

To influence even greater change,  the OU-PI subcommittee selected 45 Community Impact Sponsorship Award winners to support projects that make a positive impact in the community.  While we have achieved much success, we were delighted to be in a position to award more than $200,000 in sponsorship awards. The accomplishments of our community partners, coupled with a decade of impactful programs, serve as a strong foundation for advanced opportunities that lie ahead.

There are many opportunities for the residents of Pontiac, organizations and OU faculty, staff and students to become involved in community outreach and public engagement. For more information, please contact me at (248) 370-4455 or visit oakland.edu/oupi.

Teresa A. Rodges

Senior Director for Community Service and Pre-College Programs,
Div. of Student Affairs and Diversity

Celebrating a Decade of Community Engagement

History in the Making

The roots of the fruitful Oakland University-Pontiac Initiative (OU-PI) partnership stem from discussions that took place more than a decade ago, when leaders from both communities connected to discuss how to best build a mutually beneficial relationship.

In 2013, Kevin Cocoran, Ph.D., current interim executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, was named dean of OU’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Being new to the university and having a strong background in community engagement, one of Dr. Corcoran’s first thoughts was: What more can we do in the community?

“During that time, people were talking about Detroit, Detroit, Detroit,” Corcoran says. “I remember thinking, Why are we looking 25 to 30 miles down the road when we could build a relationship with a city that is six miles away from where I’m sitting right now? Pretty much every university in the state was focused on Detroit; I knew that Pontiac could be our partner, and ours alone.”

A Focus on Pontiac

Corcoran teamed with other OU officials, including George Hynd, Ph.D., former OU president; Phillip “Phil” Snyder, former assistant president in university advancement; and C. Robert “Bob” Maxfield, Ed.D, former dean of the School of Education and Human Services (SEHS), to explore opportunities to engage with Pontiac.

Corcoran also contacted Tom E. Kimble, Ph.D., a former chairman of the OU CAS advisory board as well as former vice chairman of the GM Foundation and director of GM’s global philanthropic activities, who had a passion for helping students in Pontiac. Corcoran wanted to gauge whether the well-connected Dr. Kimble would come back and work with CAS as a conduit between OU and Pontiac’s civic leaders. “I told [Corcoran] I would, but he would have to promise me to break down the bridge of Opdyke Road and go into the city of Pontiac that needs help tremendously,” says Kimble, referring to the road that runs along the eastern border of Pontiac.

“I remember that Tom told me, ‘Universities are really good at planning stuff, but not as good at doing stuff,’” Corcoran says, “‘so if you’re interested in just developing a plan, please don’t contact me — but if you’re interested in doing something, then I’m your guy.’”

Corcoran and Kimble met with SEHS’ Dr. Maxfield, who had been working on programming to connect OU faculty with teachers and students in the Pontiac, Avondale and Utica school districts. The trio discussed ways to take the connections with Pontiac to a larger scale. “It was obvious in talking with both of them that they were the real deal in terms of a genuine commitment to building a relationship with Pontiac,” Maxfield says.

“Our goal was never to just ‘do stuff’ for Pontiac; we weren’t there to ‘fix’ the city,” Corcoran says. “Our goal from the beginning was to determine how to work collaboratively with leaders in Pontiac to bring to bear the resources of the university, but in a way that truly meets the needs of the community.”

The Key to the City: Trust

Kimble, having served on many boards and committees in Pontiac, reached out to Deidre Waterman, M.D., an ophthalmologist who had just been elected mayor of Pontiac. The city was emerging from a period of bankruptcy during which it had been overseen by an emergency manager. Corcoran, Kimble and Maxfield met with Dr. Waterman to share their vision and mission for a partnership with OU. Waterman loved the idea and said that Pontiac was ready.

To move forward, the group knew that building trust would be key to establishing the relationship. “What we found was people had become apathetic in Pontiac. They didn’t want anything to do with institutions,” Kimble says. “People would come in to study the city, stay for a year, get all their info and then say, ‘Bye, we’re done.’ As soon as the money was gone, the institution would just back up and leave.”

The group focused on a strategy to engage the people of Pontiac. “We needed to bring people back to the public square when they didn’t trust the public square,” Kimble says. With that in mind, Kimble called Pastor Doug Jones of Welcome Missionary Baptist Church and asked if the church could be used as a location to bring together Pontiac civic leadership and OU leadership. More than 160 people showed up to the church on a cold Saturday morning in November 2014 to build the foundation of what would become the OU-Pontiac Initiative (OU-PI).

A Mutually Beneficial Partnership

“For OU, the question was: What can the university do to advance itself while advancing the strategic goals of the city of Pontiac? And for the city, we asked: What can the city do to advance its strategic plan while at the same time helping the university?” Kimble says.

Although sticky notes were used to record ideas being exchanged among the attendees at that first OU-PI town hall meeting, Maxfield recalls a diagram with overlapping circles drawn by Kimble that was “absolutely critical” to the planning. “The diagram reminded people that Pontiac does stuff that OU doesn’t need to be involved with, and that OU does stuff that Pontiac doesn’t need to be involved with,” Maxfield says. “But in the middle — where the two circles intersect — was the ‘sweet spot’ where we should stake our partnership.”

That “sweet spot,” which depicted areas of opportunity for both OU and Pontiac, became the basis for the OU-PI’s six “pillar” areas: Birth to Grade 16 Education; Civic Engagement; Economic and Workforce Development; Health Care and Wellness; Arts and Culture; and Nonprofits and Neighborhoods. What followed that first town hall meeting — and what sustained the OU-PI in its early years, according to Corcoran, Kimble and Maxfield — is that people “just kept showing up.”

A structure eventually emerged for each area to include pillar leads from OU, Pontiac and community partners, as well as participants in supportive roles, to further advance the vision and mission of the OU-PI. “We kept talking up the OU-PI to keep the momentum going, but if it hadn’t been for all of the people who stepped forward, nothing would have happened,”  Maxfield says.

Also during this time, Corcoran became a leader in, and OU became a member of, the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU), a national organization for community-engaged universities. “We felt that OU had the opportunity to become the preeminent community-engaged university,” Maxfield says. “Nobody else had something like we had in terms of a close relationship with a neighboring community where the need was there, there was some mutual history and it was worth pursuing.”

The CUMU connection, says Kimble, let it be known on a national level that OU was going into the city and working on community engagement initiatives — and soon, others began to take notice. In June 2023, the OU-PI earned recognition as a national community engagement model for Stewards of Place by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and in January 2024, OU received the prestigious 2024 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification for “exceptional commitment and success” in community engagement. Corcoran and other OU leaders, including President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., as well as Glenn Mcintosh, senior vice president for student affairs and chief diversity officer, continue to prioritize community engagement throughout the university.

A Decade of Doing

Milestones such as the OU-PI’s 10th anniversary provide an opportunity to reflect on past achievements and set goals for the future. “I think the challenge going forward is not taking our eyes off the ball,” Corcoran says. “We’ve established the relationship with Pontiac, but we have to keep working on it because it’s a relationship among human beings. It’s not a relationship between a university and a city; it’s human beings on both sides.”

“I think the tribute to it all is that the OU-PI framework that was established still exists,” adds Maxfield. “The pillars still exist. People see themselves involved in the OU-PI. The fact that we can celebrate a 10th anniversary is really a good thing, but it also provides an opportunity to remind people that we’re not there yet.

“The needs of Pontiac are great, and the opportunities provided by the university are great,” continues Maxfield. “But we’ll be a better university, and Pontiac will be a better community, if we figure out how to make that mutuality work.”

Kimble attributes his perspective of the OU-PI’s next 10 years to a phrase that his mother used to say. “Mama said, ‘Good, better, best; never let it rest. Make good better, and better best,’” Kimble says. “Mama is long gone, but that idea of continuous improvement is still with us today. Never stop, because there’s always more work to be done.”

The Commitment Continues

Around 2015, Maxfield was looking to retire from his work at OU. He reached out to Glenn McIntosh, now senior vice president for Student Affairs and chief diversity officer, to ask that he become part of the OU-PI. McIntosh had been extensively involved in community outreach and services in Pontiac as well as after-school programming through OU’s Pre-College Programs, particularly Upward Bound, and joined Kimble as co-chair of the initiative.

“I couldn’t say no, because Pontiac is like a second home to me, and has been since I arrived at OU in 1994,” McIntosh says. “Bob [Maxfield] had so much passion around this initiative, as did the other players, particularly Mayor Waterman, Dr. Kimble and Kaino Phillips.” McIntosh embraced the opportunity to work with Corcoran and the OU-PI team as well as build on his long-standing record of community work and strong relationships in Pontiac.

Eventually, there was an opening for an OU-PI outreach coordinator, and McIntosh, who oversaw the search process, selected Teresa Rodges, now senior director for Pre-College Programs and Community Service, as “the perfect person” for the role.

Rodges, who was born and raised in Pontiac, had been involved with the OU-PI from the outset as a pillar lead for Health Care and Wellness. She worked at McLaren Oakland Hospital on fundraising, outreach and programming that included a children’s health clinic and free mammography for women. Her background also included roles as executive director for the School of Nursing Continuing Education at Oakland University-Focus Hope, executive director of the McLaren Oakland Hospital Foundation, annual giving manager at Trinity Health Oakland Hospital, and vice president of development and marketing at Matrix Human Services. Rodges’ community presence and experience in fundraising and marketing made her a natural fit for the position.

“I’m from the neighborhood. Having those strong ties and wanting to give back — that’s why I’m here,” Rodges says. “I was one of those girls; I could see myself in the students. I have a passion for helping kids. I love my job because I get to give back to Pontiac students and get them on the right track.”

Having Rodges in the role, with her personal and professional ties to Pontiac, was a game changer, according to McIntosh. “Teresa and I were able to galvanize people to come to the table and stay at the table during the OU-PI’s formative years,” McIntosh says. “With these relationships, we were able to advance the six pillar areas and help grow the initiative.”

McIntosh refers to Rodges as the “glue” that has advanced the OU-PI. “The work that has occurred since Teresa’s tenure began was the catalyst for OU being recognized with the 2024 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification for ‘exceptional commitment and success’ in community engagement,” McIntosh says.

As the OU-PI partnership evolves, McIntosh says that education will serve as the core of its continued success. “Education is the foundation for everything that you want to do in a community,” he says. “It’s what we do at the university, and it’s what we do best.”

Carnegie Community Engagement Classification

OU received the 2024 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification for “exceptional commitment” and success in community engagement. This highly regarded national designation was announced on Jan. 8, 2024, by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Oakland was among 40 U.S. colleges and universities to receive the Carnegie classification this year. The OU-PI’s core leadership team, pillar leaders and community partners were recognized by President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., for their ongoing commitment and contributions to community engagement in Pontiac.

AASCU Excellence & Innovation Award for Stewards of Place

The OU-PI was selected in June 2023 as the inaugural recipient of the Excellence & Innovation Award for Stewards of Place by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The award recognized the OU-PI’s “outstanding results and potential to influence and serve as a model for other institutions.”

Oakland Community College (OCC) Partnership

At the OU-PI town hall meeting held in October 2023, Chancellor Peter Provenzano, Jr., announced that Oakland Community College (OCC) joined as a partner in OU-PI’s educational and workforce development pillars.

Community Impact Sponsorship Awards

The City of Pontiac, Oakland University and Trinity Health Oakland joined together through the OU-PI to provide Community Impact Sponsorship Awards for community engagement projects targeted to improve the Pontiac community and provide service-learning opportunities for Oakland University faculty, staff and students. More than $200,000 in Community Impact Sponsorships were awarded to the following organizations:

2023

• Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan – La Casa Amiga
• Program for expectant mothers to increase awareness about healthy pregnancy habits, breastfeeding and newborn care
• Clarence E. Phillips Ascend Foundation
• Job training related to successful seeking and maintaining employment as well as career advancement
• D House of Angels
• Promote holistic well-being to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault
• E-Community Outreach Services – Community Store with household necessities for local residents
• Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County – Assisting low- to moderate-income homeowners with minor exterior repairs with help from volunteers
• Identify Your Dream – Emergency shelter and food assistance for children in low-income communities who are grieving from loss
• Irma Hayes Productions LLC, Oakland County Roots & Rhythm, Pontiac Edition – To highlight the cultural heritage of Oakland County
• Oakland County Chapter (MI) Links, Inc. – Enriching the lives of Pontiac students with Art Education and STEAM activities
• Oakland County Sheriff PAL – Pairing girls in Pontiac with collegiate athletes to encourage increased physical activity
• Oakland County Michigan Works! – Providing Pontiac Youth with an eight-week paid work experience at businesses, nonprofits or other work locations in the Pontiac area
• OUWB School of Medicine Dermatology Interest Group – Distributing skin-care kits to the homeless population within Pontiac
• OU School of Health Sciences – Summer Camps and learning opportunities related to health sciences
• Pontiac Collective Partnership – OU SEHS Initiative for Educating Racism
• Pontiac Transportation Museum – Permanent display at the Pontiac Transportation Museum about wheeled vehicle history in the Pontiac area
• The Art Experience – Expand the Art Fish Fun Festival (2024), including growing the Artist Market

2020

• Cyber Education (AICI) – Virtual Tutoring Program at Pontiac Middle School
• OU Center for Civic Engagement – Community Conversation Series
• Oakland Hope – Human Resources Web-based Development Engagement Project
• Covenant Academy in the Hills – Certified Nursing Assistant Training Program at PHS
• Center for Success – Network Academic Literacy Project
• Oakland Schools – Careers in Health Care at Pontiac Middle School
• Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society – Pontiac Heritage Trail
• Pontiac Policy Action Fund – Census Education/Civic Engagement Project
• OU-Pontiac Initiative Early Childhood Education (OUPIECE) – Adverse Childhood Experience Initiative
• Micah 6, Pontiac Oral History Project, Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society, Detroit Theatre Group – Public Dramatic Performance of Oral Histories Related to Pontiac Exposure to COVID-19
• The ASCEND Foundation – Market for Success for High School Students
• OU Office of School and Field Services – Student Teaching at Pontiac High School
• Pontiac Arts Commission – Pontiac Arts Crawl
• Pontiac Community Foundation – Micro Granting Community Projects
• Pontiac All-star Marching Band – Uniforms for Pontiac Students
• Spirit of Pontiac Foundation – Neighborhood Empowerment Project

2019

• Kids Standard Publications – Mentorship Project for Youth: Past, Present, Future
• Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency – Grant Writing Workshops for Nonprofits
• OU Center for Civic Engagement – Town Hall Meeting Speaker Series
• OUWB School of Medicine – Culinary Medicine Elective Course for Elementary Students
• OUWB School of Medicine – Leadership Development Day for Pontiac High School Students
• OUWB School of Medicine – Passport to Medicine program at Pontiac Middle School
• OUWB School of Medicine – Promotion of Maintenance of Health Poverty Simulation Program
• OUWB School of Medicine – Evidence-based Tutoring Project Webinar
• Pontiac Arts Commission – Pontiac Arts Crawl Event
• Pontiac Arts Commission/OU School of Music, Theatre and Dance – Soul Food Special Events
• Pontiac Creative Art Center – Pontiac Pride Event
• Pontiac Middle School – Tutoring Program for English and Math
• Whitmer Human Resource Center (WHRC) School – Large-scale Student Art Mural Project
• Yvonne Lee Classroom Connection – Career Exploration/Mentorship Program

Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D.
President, Oakland University

Tim Greimel
Mayor, City of Pontiac

Khalfani Stephens
Deputy Mayor, City of Pontiac

Pastor Douglas P. Jones
President and Founder
Greater Pontiac Community Coalition

Dr. Thomas Kimble
President Emeritus, AARP and Initiative Co-Chair

Glenn McIntosh
Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer,
Oakland University and Initiative Co-Chair

Jean Ann Miller
Senior Director for Office for Student Involvement, Oakland University

Teresa Rodges
Sr. Director for Community Service and Pre-College Programs

Dr. Samino Scott
Executive Director
Pontiac Collective Impact Partnership

Wayne Thibodeau
Senior Director for Career and Life Design Center, Oakland University

John Young
Vice President for University Communications and Marketing, Oakland University

The 2023-24 OU-Pontiac Initiative (OU-PI) annual report details the OU-PI's many accomplishments over the past year. Focusing on the six pillar areas - arts and culture, birth to grade 16 education, building capacity for nonprofits and neighborhoods, civic engagement, economic and workforce development, and health care and wellness - the annual report is brimming with photographs, quotations, statistics and event recaps that celebrate the betterment of Pontiac. 

Printed copies of the annual report are available by contacting Angela Harris, office assistant in Pre-College Programs, at (248) 370-4455, or by emailing [email protected]. Thank you for your interest!