Profiles

Scott Beal

Scott Beal

Jul 24, 2026 | , |

“Writing and art are the things that give me joy and give my life color and interest; things that I devote myself toward making and celebrating in so many ways,” says poet and educator Scott Beal. “So now I have a profession that allows that to be the central thing that my profession is built around. That’s really exciting. I like working with young people and getting energy from them, and hopefully giving some back.”

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Patricia M. Garcia

Patricia M. Garcia

Jun 24, 2026 | , |

Patricia Garcia was born in Grand Rapids, the second of three daughters, and the family later moved to Lansing and Kalamazoo to follow her father’s career. A World War II Navy veteran who served on the USS Howorth, he worked as a barber when Garcia was young, and her mother stayed home. She recalls visiting his shop on her days off of school: “We’d play checkers with my dad and spin in his chair, and he’d cut our bangs.”

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Naturalist Shawn Severance

Naturalist Shawn Severance

May 26, 2026 | , |

Shawn Severance’s path to becoming a naturalist was winding, not strategic, but nevertheless seems meant to be because of all the skills she developed along the way. After earning a degree in animal physiology at MSU, she moved to Ann Arbor in 1994 to study developmental neurobiology at U-M. She earned a second master’s degree in landscape architecture, leading to years of work in green building, teaching, and campus planning at WCC before joining the parks commission.

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Educator and Human-Rights Champion

Educator and Human-Rights Champion

May 26, 2026 | , , |

Kathy Kosobud, a longtime Ann Arbor resident and educator, received the David McMahon Human Rights Award from the Michigan Education Association in April. The award honors moral and ethical leadership in the fields of human and civil rights.

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Author Camille Pagán

Author Camille Pagán

Apr 24, 2026 | , , |

Camille Pagán’s novels regularly reach bestseller lists, her work has appeared in national publications, and her career gives her a reason to travel. But she’s happiest in Ann Arbor, where her life is structured around school schedules, familiar streets, and the dependable calm of a Midwest town.

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Our Intersecting Lives

Our Intersecting Lives

Apr 24, 2026 | , , |

We present to you five strangers who all either live or work in Ann Arbor. Although they don’t know each other, they’re all connected in the little ways that make a community: frequenting the same spots, walking the same sidewalks, common heritage, similar interests and motivations.

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Endurance Athlete Brendan LaFrenier

Endurance Athlete Brendan LaFrenier

Mar 25, 2026 | , |

From March 3 to March 6, LaFrenier ran 213.6 miles across Michigan, averaging fourteen hours and fifty miles per day, with a total run time of ninety-nine hours and fifty-three minutes. An RV with a film crew, made up mostly of U-M students and staff as well as some friends from Grand Rapids, followed him along the way for an upcoming documentary.

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Comedian Jacob Barr

Comedian Jacob Barr

Feb 24, 2026 | , , |

“I put my disabilities right out in front,” says Jacob Barr, who, at twenty-eight, has become one of the city’s most distinctive standup comedians. “That was my cheat code when I started. Comedy is mostly straight white guys. Lots of guys have faces like mine, but not bodies like mine. So I use that to my advantage.”

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Trailblazer

Trailblazer

Nov 24, 2025 | , , |

Construction is underway on Fire Station 4 at 2415 S. Huron Pkwy. The name of the new station is a nod to a pioneer: Mindy Kerr, Ann Arbor’s first female firefighter.

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Fran Coy

Fran Coy

Nov 23, 2025 | , |

By the time she was eleven, Fran Coy knew two things she wanted to be: a hairstylist, and Miss Saline. At eighty-four, she’s retired from her namesake salon on Wagner Rd., but remains close to the pageant she won in 1958—and that her granddaughter won in 2017.

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Pat Deneau

Pat Deneau

Oct 24, 2025 | , |

Deneau, who works regular twenty-four hour shifts, finds comfort in his woodchuck friends. “On a day where things aren’t going our way, our station mascots are still out there doing their thing—unbothered by circumstances outside of their control.”

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Kristin Seefeldt

Kristin Seefeldt

Sep 24, 2025 | , , |

It was an experiment: give 100 citizens on the margins monthly cash payments of $528 for two years. No strings
attached—they would decide for themselves how best to spend the additional income.

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Julie Kobylarz

Julie Kobylarz

Aug 25, 2025 | , |

Kobylarz, thirty-six, has loved rodents since childhood. Chipmunks ate from her hand at her family’s cabin up north in Gaylord. At home in Westland, her parents gave her gerbils as a gift. In college at Central Michigan she bought “feeder mice,” which pet stores sell as food for reptiles, to keep as pets

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Leah Litman

Leah Litman

Jun 25, 2025 | , |

Litman brings a blend of humor and scholarship to her new book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. Pop culture references that include Barbie, Game of Thrones, and Taylor Swift help illustrate her witty analytic history of key SCOTUS rulings.

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Kymm Clark

Kymm Clark

May 24, 2025 | , |

“I prefer to be struggling in Ann Arbor as an artist than wasting every waking hour on my planet putting money into someone else’s pocket,” says Kymm Clark, whose circuitous journey has brought her back to Tree Town to her new collaborative fabrication studio, LullCo.

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