Twenty years in, and Detroit’s longest-running civic conversation closed its in-person season with intention. The final Pancakes & Politics forum took place on Friday, June 20, and it centered the people who have always moved the city forward—women leading at every level of business, energy, and healthcare. It wasn’t a symbolic gesture. It was an acknowledgment that leadership in this city has never looked one way and doesn’t belong to one group.
The forum was held on the 16th floor of Campus Martius. Rhonda Walker of WDIV joined Dennis Archer Jr. as co-host. They welcomed a panel of women who are responsible for driving major decisions across the region: Rachel Stewart, President and CEO of Gardner White; Carla Walker-Miller, Founder and CEO of Walker-Miller Energy Services; and Britany Lavis, Group CEO of the Detroit Medical Center.
This wasn’t a recap of success stories. It was a space where each woman was asked to speak directly about what it means to lead while navigating expectations that often go unspoken. Archer opened the conversation by naming a common double standard. “How is it juggling everything and still being able to be women who lead?” he asked, before pausing to reflect on the framing itself. “I just thought—no one has ever asked me that. People feel as if they must only ask women.” He followed up with a question that doesn’t often get answered honestly in public. “But how do you continue to balance?”
Britany Lavis answered with clarity. “You must compartmentalize different priorities,” she said. “It is very important to make a boundary of balance.” She spoke from direct experience leading a regional healthcare system in a city where providers are expected to do more with less and where executives are still navigating persistent inequities in access to care. Her point wasn’t aspirational. It was operational.
Carla Walker-Miller responded with a reality that doesn’t often get said out loud. “That’s how it should be,” she said, “but I haven’t had a work-life balance ever, even to this day.”
She described a time during her career when expectations at work conflicted with what she needed as a parent. “Every meeting I’d say, ‘I can’t miss the bunny breakfast.’ I’ve missed so many things, and my kids had to be at that bunny breakfast no matter what. That was my way of setting the expectation that this is the one thing I couldn’t miss.”
That experience became a turning point, not just for her personally, but for her company’s culture. “Because of that experience,” she said, “it helped me ignite a culture within my company so that the people that work for me do not have to choose between having a great career and having time to do the things that they need to. I require work-life balance for everyone.”
Rachel Stewart connected her leadership to her role as a parent. “Having kids has equipped me as I continue to lead,” she said. Stewart leads one of Michigan’s largest furniture retailers. Her comment didn’t romanticize motherhood. It acknowledged the ways personal experience can strengthen decision-making and expand leadership perspective.
The panel didn’t rely on broad statements or abstract values. It stayed grounded in the everyday work each woman is responsible for. These are leaders who manage operations, shape workplace culture, and set strategic direction across sectors that directly affect people’s lives.
Dennis Archer Jr. moved the conversation to the larger political context by referencing the current mayoral race. “There are two women running for mayor,” he said. The statement was short, but it held relevance for the audience in the room. It reflected the direction the city is moving. It also recognized that women’s leadership in Detroit is not new—it’s just now being publicly centered.
The room was filled with people who understood the significance of what was being discussed. This wasn’t an event built around pageantry. It was an invitation to consider how leadership is practiced by those who have been carrying the weight of multiple roles, inside and outside of institutions, with very little recognition. Executives, small business owners, organizers, students, and longtime Detroiters sat together in a space designed to hold this moment.
Each panelist brought years of work to the table. Walker-Miller has led her energy services company to national recognition, building from the ground up with a mission that includes sustainability and racial equity. Lavis manages a large healthcare system during a time when hospitals face staffing shortages, community trust gaps, and financial pressure. Stewart is responsible for the direction of a family-owned business with multiple locations and hundreds of employees.
This forum didn’t need to declare a theme. It reflected one in practice.
Hiram E. Jackson, publisher of the Michigan Chronicle and CEO of Real Times Media, addressed the audience with a note of appreciation. He acknowledged WDIV as a media partner and thanked the sponsors who helped make the forum possible. He also reminded attendees that while this was the last in-person forum of the season, the series itself is continuing.
“This is the final in-person forum of the season,” he said, “but Pancakes & Politics Overdrive will continue throughout the year.”
There was no forced attempt to tie the forum together with a single takeaway. The words shared by Lavis, Walker-Miller, and Stewart stood on their own. Each response provided insight into what leadership looks like when shaped by responsibility, boundary-setting, and lived experience. It also demonstrated that leadership cannot be divorced from the personal conditions people are operating under.
Detroit is often asked to prove its resilience. The panel made clear that much of that resilience has been carried by women who are navigating complexity, directing institutions, and building internal systems that support the people who keep those institutions running.
The final forum served as a reminder that civic discourse must include not only policy conversations, but also the people who are leading at scale within their industries. It also confirmed that centering women’s leadership is not an initiative or experiment. It’s a recognition of what is already true.
There was no conclusion needed beyond what was already said. Leadership is being redefined daily by the people doing the work. The forum didn’t provide a solution to the challenges these women face. It gave space to name them and to hold them without interruption. And for many in the room, that was enough.
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