Board of Directors

Paul Hillegonds

CHAIR

Paul Hillegonds chairs the board of the Center for Michigan. He is the former founding CEO of the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and previously served as senior vice president of corporate affairs for DTE Energy and president of Detroit Renaissance. A member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1979 to 1996, he held several leadership posts, including co-speaker and speaker of the House. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

Sara Wycoff McCauley

VICE CHAIR

Sara Wycoff McCauley is the founder and president of Strategic Policy Consultants, a Michigan policy research firm. She previously spent five years as senior strategic policy advisor to Governor Rick Snyder, working on economic and workforce development, health and human services and public safety, and earlier led policy work for the state’s veterans affairs efforts. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Albion College and a master’s in public policy from the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. 

Cindy Goodaker 

SECRETARY

Cindy Goodaker is the former executive editor of Crain’s Detroit Business, where she ran the newsroom for roughly two decades over a career with the publication spanning more than 30 years. She later served as vice president of signature programs and communications at Inforum. A graduate of Purdue University, she was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2025.

Regina Bell

Regina Bell is chief policy officer at the Council of Michigan Foundations, where she leads government relations and public policy work on behalf of Michigan philanthropy. Her career spans more than two decades across the public and private sectors, including roles as a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, policy director for Governor Jennifer Granholm and director of government and external affairs for AT&T Michigan.

Trey Eldridge

Trey Eldridge is the COO and an executive managing director at The Connable Office, Inc., a Cresset company based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Previously, he served as a mergers and acquisitions and business attorney with Miller Canfield. Trey holds a juris doctor degree from The Ohio State University and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Miami University. He is an elected township trustee in Richland, Michigan.

Rob Fowler

Rob Fowler is the former president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan, which he led for nearly two decades and grew into one of the largest small business organizations in the country. A longtime advocate for entrepreneurship and bipartisan policymaking, he has served on the boards of the National Small Business Association and the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and co-chaired the statewide education initiative Launch Michigan.

Philip Power

Philip Power is the founder of the Center for Michigan, which he launched in 2006, and of Bridge Michigan, which followed in 2011. He built and led HomeTown Communications Network, an award-winning group of community newspapers in Michigan and the Upper Midwest, before selling the company in 2005. A graduate of the University of Michigan and a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, he served as a U-M Regent from 1987 to 1999 and is a member of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.

Glenda Price

Glenda Price is the former president of the Detroit Public Schools Foundation and president emerita of Marygrove College, where she was the institution’s seventh president and the first African American to hold the role. She spent more than three decades in higher education, including as provost of Spelman College, and was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2020. She holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Temple University.

Devin Scillian

Devin Scillian is an award-winning journalist, author and musician who anchored the evening news at WDIV-TV (Local 4) in Detroit for nearly three decades before retiring in December 2024. He created and hosted the station’s weekly public affairs program, “Flashpoint,” won the Edward R. Murrow Award multiple times and received the Society of Professional Journalists Detroit chapter’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025. He is also the author of more than 20 books and a graduate of the University of Kansas.

Katy Locker

EX OFFICIO

Katy Locker is CEO of the Center for Michigan, the nonprofit publisher of Bridge Michigan and home to BridgeDetroit. She joined the organization as chief operating officer and became CEO in 2023, bringing more than 20 years of experience as a funder, lawyer and community advocate. She previously served as Detroit program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and vice president of programs at the Hudson-Webber Foundation. She holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Michigan Law School.