Councilmember · City of Milan, Michigan
About Marie
Marie Gress's career has been built on a single, consistent skill: turning relationships and careful planning into real resources for the communities she serves. She brings that same focus on relationships, funding, and follow-through to the City of Milan.
Rooted in Milan
She chose to build her life here
Marie first came to Milan in 2014 to work for Milan Seniors for Healthy Living, and she fell for the small town quickly. She and her husband, Evan, built their home in the Meadowbrook neighborhood in 2016 and welcomed their son, Lennox, in 2017.
During those early years they also helped launch Fieldstone Church — Lennox was its first baby. Marie's investment in Milan is not abstract or recent; it is where she has chosen to build her family and her life.
A career in public service
A steady climb in service of others
Marie earned a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Calvin University (2011) and a Master of Social Work in gerontology and nonprofit management from Eastern Michigan University (2016), and in 2024 she completed a Certificate in Fundraising Management through Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy — the credentials behind the "LMSW-Macro, CFRM" after her name.
Her early work — as an AmeriCorps VISTA focused on employment development, then as Assistant Director of Public Housing and Director of YouthWorks at the Community Action Network — placed her squarely in the practical machinery of housing, workforce, and opportunity. From 2014 to 2020 she served as Director of Operations at Milan Seniors for Healthy Living.
She later founded Kovir LLC, a consulting practice delivering grant writing, program development, evaluation, and strategic planning for community organizations including Compassion Ministry of Milan and Aid in Milan. She has also taught the next generation of social workers as a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University and at the University of Michigan's School of Social Work.
Bringing real dollars home
The clearest measure of her effectiveness
A demonstrated method: identify a real need, build the coalition, cultivate the funder relationship, and write the winning case. It is exactly the discipline a city needs — because, as Marie often points out, Milan needs money to spend money.
$10M
Federal earmark
A workforce-development center, with Goodwill of Delaware.
$8M
State earmark
A new, age-friendly Dexter senior center, with Dexter Schools.
$4.5M
County ARPA + general funds
Secured for Washtenaw County aging services after advocating for $8M.
$500K
Raised in year one at WAVE
New dollars from townships, foundations, and donors.
An executive who delivers
She turns trajectories around
Since 2023, Marie has been Executive Director of the Western-Washtenaw Area Value Express (WAVE), the public-transportation nonprofit serving western Washtenaw County. Stepping in as interim director in May 2023 and appointed permanently that November, she did not simply maintain the organization — she changed its direction.
In her first year she raised roughly $500,000 in new dollars and more than doubled ridership — over 9,000 additional rides — while driving down the cost per rider, per mile, and per hour. Growth and fiscal discipline, at the same time.
Running WAVE means leading an organization, managing a budget, answering to a board, and collaborating constantly with the townships and municipalities it serves. Marie negotiates interlocal cooperation, represents her agency before regional bodies, and keeps a multi-jurisdiction operation financially healthy. That is executive leadership of public infrastructure, practiced daily.
A convener who builds the table
Range across whole systems
Marie's influence comes from the relationships she builds and the rooms she helps lead. She chairs the Washtenaw County Commission on Aging and the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation's Glacier Hills Legacy Fund. She co-chairs the Healthy Aging Collaborative and the NASW-Michigan Gerontology Workgroup, sits on the rural transit task force and the Small Urban Funds committee, and represents seniors on the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study.
She is fluent in the funding mechanisms of MDOT, SEMCOG, and WATS; comfortable at the table with foundations like the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation; and equally at home with grassroots groups like Aid in Milan and the Historical Society. She does not represent a single constituency or a single issue — she thinks in terms of whole systems and whole communities.
On Milan City Council
A citywide agenda, built on how a city actually pays for what it promises
Milan voters elected Marie to one of three at-large City Council seats in November 2025, and she was seated in January 2026. She ran because community members encouraged her to — and because the skills that defined her career are the skills a council needs.
- Roads
- Real progress on improvements — and honest communication about how road projects are funded and timed.
- Housing
- More housing availability and better sidewalks, with transit as a lever for state and federal housing dollars.
- Finances
- Pursuing the grants the city has lacked capacity to chase, and transparency about which funds are healthy.
- Strategic partnerships
- Shared services with neighbors — a shared grant writer, interlocal transit, joint contracts, school partnerships.
- Advocacy
- Expanding the channels through which the city hears residents and residents hear the city.
Temperament & trust
“A relationship builder, intellectually curious, a quick learner, calm, a problem solver, and a supportive leader.”
— how Marie's peers describe her. She listens, she does the homework, and she follows through.
Capable, results-driven stewardship
For a city that wants to grow responsibly — transparent in its finances, ambitious in its partnerships, and steady in its leadership — Marie offers exactly that. Have something on your mind? She wants to hear from you.