About DCADI
Our Story
DCADI was founded on a simple but powerful belief: before a young person can choose a creative career, they need the space to understand who they are. We are a Detroit-based nonprofit building that space for high school students.
This page is being developed. Full content including our founding story, team, approach, and research is coming soon.
Explore the flagship programOur Approach
Self-understanding before career selection.
We do not begin by asking students what they want to be. We begin by asking who they are. Full approach documentation coming soon.
Leadership
Built with vision.
Guided with purpose.
DCADI is led by people committed to expanding creative opportunity, exploration, and possibility for Detroit's young people.
Founder & Executive Director
Seaira Savage
Seaira Savage founded the Detroit Creative Arts & Design Initiative from a deeply personal understanding of what it means to be creative without always knowing where that creativity belongs.
Throughout her own journey, she explored multiple creative interests while searching for the connection between what she was naturally drawn to, where her strengths lived, and what a meaningful creative path could actually look like. That experience revealed a larger problem: young people are often asked to make decisions about college, careers, and their futures before they have had enough opportunity to explore who they are or understand the possibilities available to them.
That realization became the foundation for DCADI. Seaira created DCADI to give young people access to something she believes should happen much earlier: the opportunity to explore before being expected to choose.
Her vision extends beyond helping students discover creative careers. She is building DCADI as a place where young people can develop confidence in their ideas, recognize the value of their individual perspectives, and see themselves as participants in the creative and cultural future of their communities.
"Before we ask young people what they want to do, we should give them the opportunity to discover who they are."
Board of Directors
DCADI's Board of Directors provides governance, oversight, and stewardship in support of the organization's mission and long-term development.
Chalena Beasley
Board Chair
Arion Gamble
Board Secretary
Christina Hall
Board Treasurer
Board member biographies coming soon.
Impact & Research
Building the evidence base.
DCADI is preparing for its inaugural cohort. Impact data and research documentation will be published as the program develops.