Tracy Clark - President
Tracy is an attorney with the law firm of Steinberg Shapiro & Clark, specializing in bankruptcy law. Over the years, Tracy has been involved in various non-profit organizations, including Access to Bankruptcy Court, which provides bankruptcy representation to low-income individuals seeking debt relief; and the Farmington Hills Rehabilitation Loan Board, which provides loans for home repairs to qualifying city residents. Tracy also volunteers her time as a certified arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau, Lemon Law program and as a scoring judge for the Michigan Center for Civic Education, Oakland County Regional Tournament of the Michigan High School Mock Trials. Tracy is a member of St. Fabian Church in Farmington Hills.
Luther Elliott - Vice President
Luther is president and founder of Information Systems Resources (ISR), one of only a few companies worldwide that provides cradle-to-grave IT asset management —procurement, warehousing, staging, deployment, and disposal and remarketing— for large and medium-sized companies. Luther launched ISR in 1989 out of his home. The company has experienced exponential growth and now reports $10 million in gross sales and 50 full-time employees.
ISR, a certified minority business enterprise, recently moved to a 110,000 square-foot facility in Dearborn. The company was named one of “50 Companies to Watch in Michigan” in 2005, and most recently was named to Inc. Magazine’s “5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies.”
Luther follows the Six Sigma quality management principle and trains his employees to practice the same quality techniques. He contributes much of the company’s growth to a company shift toward secure disposal, green recycling and remarketing client IT assets. As a commodity, information systems get replaced every few years. Luther realized that clients needed an option for properly destroying sensitive and private information, such as health records, insurance claims and government defense information. Elliott nimbly transformed the company to be able to provide secure disposal of information, and remarketing or recycling old computers and IT equipment.
Prior to launching ISR, Luther served in IT sales for Midwest Business Systems. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in communication and business from the University of Detroit.
Leon Tupper - Treasurer
Leon is a life-long resident of the Detroit area who has owned and operated businesses for over thirty-five years in the state of Michigan. He has been very active in the community sitting on the boards of Forgotten Harvest, Rehabilitations Institute of Michigan, Cleary University, Michigan Roundtable, and Wayne State University School of Business, and Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit among others. He is a member of the Christ the King parish in Detroit. Northville resident, business owner.
Jason Bank - Secretary
Jason is an attorney with Kerr, Russell and Weber, PLC, a firm that has operated since 1874 in Detroit. He leads the bankruptcy and restructuring practice and serves as the firm’s general counsel. He is also a certified mediator. Jason has served in the Executive Cabinet for the Metro Detroit American Heart Association Heart Walk and is a regular volunteer for Matrix Human Services, a provider of Head Start services in Detroit and the Boy Scouts of America. Jason and his family are members of St. Thomas a'Becket in Canton.
Steven Howell
Steve has been practicing for over 40 years as a bankruptcy and insolvency lawyer providing a broad range of services in the distressed business context. A significant part of Steve’s practice is spent counseling lenders in troubled loan matters throughout the workout process. He continues to serve as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Michigan as lead bankruptcy counsel on behalf of the State of Michigan in the Chapter 9 bankruptcy case filed by the City of Detroit. In addition, he serves as counsel to the Detroit Financial Review Commission which is responsible for reviewing and approving certain activities by the City of Detroit and reviewing compliance with the City’s plan of adjustment, confirmed by the bankruptcy court in November of 2014. Steve has also represented borrowers, creditors’ committees, creditors and purchasers of financially distressed companies. He has previously served as Practice Department Manager of the Banking, Bankruptcy, and Municipal Finance groups at Dickinson Wright for 8 years. Increasingly, Steve has been called upon to mediate matters in both state and federal courts. He works out of the downtown Detroit office of Dickinson Wright, located in the Ally Detroit Center.
In addition to his practice responsibilities, Steve serves as the Firm’s Executive Director of Community and Client Relations, focusing on increasing the visibility and involvement of Dickinson Wright in its communities and complementing the business development activities and efforts of the Firm and his colleagues. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Haven, an Oakland County non-profit organization dedicated to providing shelter, counseling, advocacy, and educational programming for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Kathleen Newell, J.D.
Kathleen is an attorney by profession and has been practicing law since 1973. She is currently engaged in private practice as a self-employed individual who has retired from the State of Michigan as an Administrative Law Judge in 2002. She has served on the State Advisory Council (SAC) having been appointed to several terms by the Michigan Commission on Services to the Aging. I was first appointed in 2002 and reappointed to three-year terms in 2009 and 2012. Kathleen is extremely committed as an advocate to protect the rights of the elderly and has served as a volunteer advocate in many areas that relate to the aging and disable populations. She considers her strengths to be organization, leadership roles, and a vigorous commitment to do the best job possible despite time constraints that may be encountered in fulfilling a specific responsibility. Kathleen resides in Detroit and is also a member of Christ the King Parish.
Patrick Stewart
Patrick retired in 2013 as a Senior Vice President from JPMorgan Chase, where he spent 35+ years in various roles in Commercial Banking. Since that time, he has regularly volunteered in the City of Detroit, and in 2015, he began working with St. Christine Christian Services as a volunteer in the Pantry. Pat thoroughly enjoys his time working with St. Christine’s, and he is committed to assisting our neighbors in the Brightmoor community.
Pat and his wife are long time members of St. Thomas a Beckett parish in Canton.
Christian Remus
Christian was ordained as a Deacon in the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2014, He completed his studies for the Diaconate at Sacred Heart Seminary where he also earned a Master’s in Pastoral Ministry.
Upon ordination, Deacon Chris requested an assignment in Detroit and was assigned to the historic churches of Ste. Anne de Detroit and Most Holy Trinity. He was blessed to have the late Msgr. Russ Kohler as his pastor. After three years, Deacon Chris was given an opportunity to return to his home parish of Christ the King in Detroit which had partnered with St. Suzanne/Our Lady Gate of Heaven, also in Detroit, and to serve under the Rev. Victor Clore.
Much of Deacon Chris’s ministry is in Brightmoor with St. Vincent de Paul Christian Outreach and at the St. Christine Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen. He also serves at Sunday Mass at St. Suzanne/Our Lady Gate of Heaven parish and is on the Board of St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Resource Center.
Deacon Chris is a retired chemist, living in Rosedale Park in Detroit with his wife of 50 years Ruth. He has two grown children and six grandchildren who reside with their families in Chicago and Boston.
He has felt humbled to be called to serve in the Diaconate in the city of Detroit and to ‘do the Lord’s work’.
Dustin Hoff
Dustin Hoff is a trial attorney at Christensen Law, based in the greater metropolitan Detroit area. He joined the firm in 2015 after beginning his legal career in the Thumb. He represents plaintiffs in wrongful death, motorcycle, auto and truck accidents, insurance disputes, and other forms of civil and criminal law, and has an impressive record of trial verdicts and settlements for victims suffering catastrophic personal injury. Dustin received his Juris Doctor from Western Michigan University’s Cooley Law School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Saginaw State University. He is a member of the Trial Lawyers Practice of the Washtenaw County Bar Association, the Michigan Association for Justice, and the Michigan Bar Association, and is a frequent contributing speaker at the Institute of Continuing Legal Education. His style as a lawyer is accessible and empathetic. “I love giving a voice to and protecting the rights of injured victims. Most people have no experience with the legal system; and especially after an accident, it's important we don’t let them fall through the cracks along with their rights.”
Officer Troy Wesley
Troy is a Police Officer for the City of Detroit. Troy's passion for helping others led to his appointment as a Neighborhood Police Officer (NPO) for the 8th Precinct. As an NPO, Troy is responsible for establishing problem-solving processes to respond to community concerns; facilitating communication between the community and the Detroit Police Department; and coordinating with other entities of the Department, outside agencies, federal, state, county, and city departments, and community members. Troy is a dedicated team player who places a strong emphasis on daily collaboration with city departments and initiatives related to maintaining public order throughout the 8th Precinct.