Marie Gress

I first came to Milan in 2014 to work for Milan Seniors for Healthy Living, and I very quickly fell in love with the small town. My husband, Evan, and I built a house in Meadowbrook in 2016 and welcomed our one-and-only kiddo, Lennox, in 2017. During that time we also helped launch Fieldstone Church — Lennox was actually the first baby!

I started freelance grant writing for community-based non-profits, including Compassion Ministry of Milan and Aid in Milan, Inc. During COVID, I rented the Old Fire Barn and leaned into my Kovir LLC consulting work full time — grant writing, program development, evaluation, strategic planning, and overall non-profit management. I began teaching at Eastern Michigan University's School of Social Work MSW & BSW programs and at the University of Michigan's School of Social Work, was appointed to Washtenaw County's first Commission on Aging, and was asked to chair the Washtenaw County Healthy Aging Collaborative.

Along the way, my team and I worked with Goodwill of Delaware to win a $10 million federal earmark for workforce development, partnered with the Dexter Senior Center to win an $8 million state earmark to build a new senior center, and worked with the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners to secure $4.5 million in ARPA appropriations for aging services, approve a 0.5 mil older-persons millage, and create an Office on Aging. I worked with AAA 1-B to write the Oakland County Blueprint for Healthy Aging white paper and to design the final deliverable. I was also a stakeholder in the development of the AAACF Strategic Plan for Aging Services in Washtenaw County.

While I still consult on the side, my day job since April 2023 has been executive director of the Western-Washtenaw Area Value Express, a public-transportation non-profit, where I collaborate with local townships and municipalities regularly. In 2024 I raised $500,000 in new dollars and doubled ridership with minimal cost increases — driving cost-per-rider, cost-per-mile, and cost-per-hour down. I also sit on the rural transit task force, Small Urban Funds committee, and represent seniors on the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study.

I currently chair the Washtenaw County Commission on Aging and chair the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation's Glacier Hills Legacy Fund. I'm honored to now serve on Milan City Council, where I'm putting that same focus on relationships, funding, and follow-through to work for our city.

My peers have called me a relationship builder, intellectually curious, a quick learner, calm, informative, a problem solver, and a supportive leader.