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Commissioner Jenice Mitchell Ford (Commission Chair)

Jenice Mitchell Ford is a native Detroiter and a graduate of Martin Luther King, Jr. High School. She earned an English literature degree from Georgetown University in 1996 where she served as president of the Gospel Choir and the Black Student Association. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1999 where she served as an articles editor for the Northwestern Law Review and vice chair of the Christian Legal Fellowship.

Currently Senior Counsel in the Detroit offices of Foley & Lardner, LLP, one of the country's largest law firms, Mitchell Ford specializes in commercial litigation. She is admitted to practice law in Michigan, Illinois, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. Prior to joining Foley, Ms. Ford was judicial clerk to the Honorable Anna Diggs Taylor, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Mitchell Ford is civic minded and community oriented. A member of the Detroit Regional Chamber's Leadership Detroit Class XXIV, she volunteers as a member of the Board of Directors of the Sphinx Organization, which is dedicated to the training and exposure of Black and Latino classical musicians. She is former vice chair of the City of Detroit Board of Ethics. She was awarded the Wolverine Bar Association's Margrette A. Taylor Distinguished Young Lawyer Award, and from 2001-2006 coordinated the Wolverine Bar's Minority Bar Passage Program, helping prepare nearly 100 law students to pass the Michigan bar examination.

Mitchell Ford was a steering committee member for Michigan Lawyers for Obama, coordinating voter protection efforts during the historic 2008 election. She has served on transition teams for elected officials and has worked on presidential, gubernatorial and mayoral elections.

A lifelong member and past trustee of Corinthian Baptist Church of Hamtramck, Mitchell Ford is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and a trustee of the Minerva Education and Development Foundation, a philanthropic arm of the Detroit Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Inc.

She lives and works in the City of Detroit with her husband, Harry J. Ford, III and has a vested interest in the future of the city.

e-mail: JMFord@2009dcrc.org

link to source: 2009dcrc.org/CommissionerFord

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