Christie Baer

Christie Ayotte Baer is the Managing Director for the University of Michigan’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (U-M DNEP, pronounced D-nep), a program she created and has led since its founding in 2016. DNEP is a small business accelerator that leverages 500 students per year as service providers for metro Detroit businesses to help them scale. Faculty-supervised students provide business owners with accounting, legal, business, marketing, operational, design, and technology services, in sequence, over several years, usually on a 1:1 or 4:1 basis. It is the first such university-based program in the country to provide businesses with wrap-around services from multiple disciplines. 90% of DNEP’s small business clients are minority-owned; as of 2024, the program has supported 900+ businesses. 

In addition to managing and funding DNEP, Christie co-teaches in DNEP’s summer internship program, Impact Studio for Local Business, where interns implement recommendations for a portfolio of small business clients. She also co-designed and obtained funding for DNEP’s Community Tech Worker project, which trains Detroit residents to provide free 1:1 tech support to small businesses. She is a co-author of two published papers about the project. 

Christie is a serial entrepreneur who has owned four businesses and managed dozens of for-profits, non-profits, and political campaigns over 20 years. Her current hobby, Restless Resellers, is an eBay store that promotes sustainability. Her previous businesses included a law firm, a small business/political consulting firm, and a real estate flipping business.

Prior to joining the Ross School of Business, Christie served as the assistant director of the Ford School of Public Policy’s Center on Finance, Law & Policy for seven years, where she managed dozens of student researchers, and oversaw research projects related to financial regulation, fintech, and consumer protection.

Before coming to Michigan, Christie was an attorney, mediator, and guardian ad litem in private practice in Atlanta and Savannah at a boutique law firm she founded, focused on meeting the needs of modern families. She is licensed to practice law in Georgia (inactive) and in Michigan.

Christie’s first career was in local politics. In the early 2000s (pre-marriage equality), she managed Georgia Equality, Inc., a statewide political and advocacy organization that organized, lobbied, endorsed candidates, and advocated for Georgia’s LGBTQ community at the state and local level.

Christie’s expertise is in community engagement, entrepreneurship, and leadership. She earned her JD from Emory University School of Law and her BA in Sociology from Smith College.