A CEO Story: Michael Turner

“How do you want an audience to walk away or feel?” Working in educational outreach may not be the same as performing on stage night after night, but for Michael Turner, whose background includes acting and music in addition to social work, his end goal is the same.

Turner has worked for the Center of Educational Outreach since shortly after its inception 15 years ago in 2009. Community connection was pivotal to CEO’s early success, and Turner’s work experience as a youth director in Southwest Detroit managing after-school programs was essential for what CEO was to become.

My whole point was relationships,” Turner remembers of his early days at CEO. He noted that the University of Michigan had a “stigma” that it came into communities and “takes, takes, takes.” CEO was working diligently to dismantle that notion, which for Turner, began with “having conversations with different communities.”

Even in 2009, when Turner first joined the CEO team, he says that “I was very keen on social and emotional development, which at the time I referred to as self-efficacy.”

Early programs Turner contributed to included Future U for middle school students, MAS (Maximizing Academic Success), and Pillars, a family engagement initiative. Turner partnered with many different U-M departments and faculty members for the first time, as well as graduate interns.

As CEO’s scope of work changed with the introduction of U-M’s DEI Strategic Plan in 2015, Turner felt a shift in the attitudes and understanding of what it meant to do engagement work through the University of Michigan. “I think there was a different support put on outreach at the campus level once the DEI plan was put in place.”

With the centralization of this work, Turner’s role shifted, too. “This is how you engage families. This is how you interact with communities,” he describes of lending his expertise. He began consulting with different schools across the university, helping create a cohesive lens for outreach.

After 15 years, Turner is now in a leadership position, serving as the program director for the Michigan College Advising Corps (MCAC) and the associate director of K-12 partnerships for CEO. His strength in mentoring and coaching young people working in communities shines in this role, as he is known for his regular check-ins with advisers, offering them guidance, discussing next career steps, and aiming to prevent burnout.

“Having the Detroit background afforded me an opportunity to be considered for the role,” Turner reflects, but it’s his dedication to supporting students, families and young professionals across the state of Michigan that have kept him coming back everyday for the past 15 years.

This story originally appeared in “Celebrating 15 Years of Educational Outreach.”