Marian J. Krzyzowski is director of the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy (IRLEE) under the U-M Office of Research. He is the author of articles and studies on regional economic development and was the co-director of the U-M’s AmericCorps Program, a collaborative effort between five of the University’s graduate professional schools and over 20 neighborhood-based organizations in Detroit and Dearborn. Marian has a faculty appointment at the U-M’s Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, where he lectures on 20th century Detroit history. His research interests include public history and in particular the history of Detroit’s ethnic, racial and religious communities. He launched the Detroit Chene Street History Project in early 2002. Marian has degrees in mathematics and economics from the University of Michigan and Wayne State University and a MSW degree from the University of Michigan.

Karen Majewski is a Project Manager at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economcy (IRLEE). She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1998, with a focus on the study of immigration and ethnicity. Her book, Traitors and True Poles: Narrating a Polish American Identity, 1880-1939, was published in 2003 and examines Polish-language immigrant literature written and published in the United States. The former Executive Director of the Polish American Historical Society, she is also the author of many articles, and a frequent speaker on Polish American affairs. In 2006 Majewski was elected the first woman mayor of the City of Hamtramck, Michigan, where she still serves.