Michigan Matters: Shining a light on community champions

We're talking with the 2026 Shining Light Award honorees on Michigan Matters as Bob Riney, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health, Laura Grannemann, executive director of the Rocket Community Fund and Gilbert Family Foundation, Jeremiah Steen of Steen Foundation and Dan Austin of historicDetroit.org, talk about issues before the region, their impact on the community and the road ahead for Metro Detroit.  

The signature event, launched 19 years ago by the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition and the Detroit Free Press, presents awards to regional leaders named in honor of the late Free Press publisher Neal Shine, the late co-founder of Focus: Hope, Eleanor Josaitis, and former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

Riney is being honored with the Neal Shine Exemplary Leader Award, Austin with the Eleanor Josaitis Unsung Hero Award, and Grannemann and Steen with the Dave Bing Young Leader Award.

Also appearing on the show are Dave Bing, Amy O'Leary, president of Metropolitan Affairs Coalition, Nicole Avery-Nichols, editor and vice president of the Detroit Free Press and Jeanette Pierce, president of City Institute.

Avery-Nichols and O'Leary talk about the awards, as hundreds were nominated.

Bing, an NBA All-Star who once played for the Detroit Pistons, was also the founder and CEO of an auto parts company. He talks about the city he once led as mayor and his views on the Motor City's prospects.

The awards ceremony luncheon will be held on Oct. 7 at the MotorCity Hotel and will be emceed by Carol Cain, senior producer and host of CBS Detroit's Michigan Matters.

(Watch Michigan Matters at its new time: 5:30 a.m. Sundays on CBS Detroit and 9:30 a.m. Sundays on CW Detroit 50 WKBD.)

(Carol Cain is the 13-time Emmy-winning senior producer and host of Michigan Matters.)