Mode Shift: Move Together is powered by the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, yourself, and a small team of dedicated professionals.

Jessica Soulliere

Jessica is editor and program director for Mode Shift and a communications officer for the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. Aside from writing and a passion for all things digital, she's an avid organic gardener with aspirations of running her own organic farm some day. In her spare time, she helps run YA Salsa!, which seeks to develop and promote salsa dancing in southeast Michigan, and sits on the board of Growing Hope, an Ypsilanti-based organization dedicated to helping people improve their lives and communities through gardening and access to healthy food. Growing up in southeast Michigan, she's always had a love for Detroit and a keen interest in its revitalization, with special attention to public health and promoting the physical and mental well being for all.

Achille Bianchi

Achille is the community manager, writer and photographer for Mode Shift. He has been living and working in the city of Detroit for eight years as a journalist, photographer and social entrepreneur. He is an active member at OMNICORPDETROIT in Eastern Market as well as the DIY/Maker movement as a whole. He enjoys cycling, city life, civic engagement and checking out local music, art and food. He has an unhealthy love for the Great Lakes and Michigan. 

Sandra Svoboda

Lured by a journalism job, Sandra left her hometown of Chicago and moved to Detroit for what was to have been a nine-month stint. More than two decades later, she’s still here and considers herself an advocate, defender and tough-love critic of the metro region. She’s worked for the Associated Press, Wayne State University, The (Toledo) Blade newspaper and most recently the Metro Times where her work focused on public policy, politics and legal affairs and was recognized with numerous local and national awards. Her undergraduate degree is in journalism and history from Indiana University. She also earned a master’s degree from Wayne State with a concentration in health care policy which should serve her well as a staff writer at Mode Shift: Move Together. Find her cycling, walking her dog and dragging friends to Eastern Market when she’s not deployed as a writing specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Melinda Clynes

Melinda is a features writer for Mode Shift and Royal Oak freelancer who favors a circa-1974 Schwinn Suburban when it comes to two-wheeled transport. She rescued the bike from her parent’s garage days before it was headed to the curb. In the same spirit, she will share her passion for health and wellness issues with Mod Shift readers through weekly stories about the people, places and projects that are making southeast Michigan more robust, more livable, and, doggone it, more fun. She has been writing about the work of metro Detroit nonprofits for 22 years; once an active travel writer who traversed the globe, she still pens stories about recreation, festivals, and destinations closer to home.