Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kurt moved permanently to the Detroit area in 1975 when he be
gan full-time employment with the Census Bureau. Kurt spent 15 years with the U.S. Census Bureau in the Detroit Regional Office. During his last 10 years, he organized and directed the data services program in the 3-state region of Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia.
In 1990, he joined Wayne State University’s Center for Urban Studies as a Senior Research Analyst with the Michigan Metropolitan Information Center (MIMIC) program. He became director of MIMIC in 1993, and then Center Research Director in 2000.
In 2005, he went on to become Research Director for the United Way for Southeastern Michigan (UWSEM). In this capacity, he developed and conducted the primary and secondary research required to transition UWSEM to a community impact-driven United Way. Beginning in 2008, UWSEM redirected its funding emphasis to the areas of educational preparedness, financial stability, and basic needs.
After speaking for 30 years about the need for coordinated data collection and delivery in Southeast Michigan, in 2008 Kurt was selected by the Skillman and Kresge foundations to develop and direct a new foundation-funded regional data indicators system, Data Driven Detroit (D3). In this capacity, he plans to reach out to data developers in the government, nonprofit and private sectors and explain to them the importance of making their data publicly available and to offer them a system that will facilitate the process. In addition, the vision for D3 is to serve as a regional information resource – a one-stop hub where information from any and all sources around the region are housed, coordinated, and made publicly available.
Kurt’s demographic research interests dovetail well with the essence of D3′s charge – namely, developing a “centralized” data repository that will facilitate a variety of research, education and service programs designed to improve the understanding of population and housing patterns in metropolitan Detroit and urban America.
Kurt brings his demographic expertise to a number of state and local organizations, including the Michigan Land Use Leadership Council, the Governor’s Lead Task Force, Michigan’s Children, Michigan Kids Count, the Michigan Early Childhood Investment Council (ECIC), OneD, the New Economy Initiative, SEMCOG, the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, and many more. He also serves on the boards of Create Detroit, the Greening of Detroit, and the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit. In addition, he is regularly sought out by local media and is asked by a variety of organizations throughout the region, state and country to speak on demographic trends.
For more, go to www.datadrivendetroit.org.
I would be interested to know how community partners will supply you with data. Can this data be updated as changes occur? Will you track individuals and their data or health indicators? Finally, will community partners have access to the data?
Thanks for your help!
Shannon
Do you have an RSS feed or other social media page for your blog?
Kurt,
I work for the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning and cover SE Michigan as part of my territory. I just read about Data Driven Detroit and would love to share with you the FREE data query tools on traffic crashes that are available online (www.michigantrafficcrashfacts.org). We also offer presentations to the public about the website and how to use it to determine local traffic crash issues.
Thanks,
Dianne Perukel
Office of Highway Safety Planning
Michigan State Police
Mr. Metzger,
This is one of your old coworkers from WSU CUS who is now with the Dept. of Health & Wellness Promotion. I am with the Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention Office almost 10 years now. I am so glad to see that you are continuing to work hard with the urban community by keeping us informed and in the know about the good and the bad in Detroit. Oh how important data is and I sure will be utilizing this site for DHWP/BSAPTR Prevention Reporting and sharing. I will see you at the Data Driven meeting on March 8th along with Dianne from OHSP above.
Add me to your e-list,
Mrs. Karra Thomas
Prevention Coordinator
Kurt,
Check response after Poll with Promise article. Old friend
Jerry
This is one of your old coworkers from WSU CUS who is now with the Dept. of Health & Wellness Promotion. I am with the Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention Office almost 10 years now. I am so glad to see that you are continuing to work hard with the urban community by keeping us informed and in the know about the good and the bad in Detroit. Oh how important data is and I sure will be utilizing this site for DHWP/BSAPTR Prevention Reporting and sharing. I will see you at the Data Driven meeting on March 8th along with Dianne from OHSP above.
+1
Dear Mr. Metzger:
I am a public health oriented physician. I understand that Detroit has one of the worst problems with obesity of any city in the country. I am wondering what, if anything, Detroit is doing about this.
I have had the good fortune to develop an urban planning, information technology, public health oriented tool (RFID ecosystem) to encourage walking, cycling jogging, etc. It could be used to help deal with obesity.
It is essentially an advanced and permanent marathon ecosystem (not simple track) by which the walker, cyclist, etc. could objectively document and measure his walking regardless of distance, route, or direction taken. It is much more accurate and inexpensive than a GPS system. It could also be integrated into light rail and other services. To whom would I write or phone about this in Detroit?
I have vetted this with a variety of exercise epidemiologists and obesity prevention specialists.
I also think that if you are getting people committed to walking around, they will be more interested and involved in their community and may come up with ideas on what to do on a small and large scale in Detroit. Second, this may provide an opportunity to make physical activity a part of the rebuilding process of the city and bring a culture of walking and cycling to it that could make it a model for the whole country.
It is also a green initiative.
Thank you for your attention.
Very truly yours,
Bohdan A Oryshkevich, MD, MPH
bohdan_oryshkevich@verizon.net
Kurt, I have been interested in reaquainting for years…Brooks
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