Christie Ayotte Baer is the Co-Founder and Managing Director for the University of Michigan’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (U-M DNEP), pronounced [Dee-nep], a program she has led since 2016. DNEP is the University of Michigan’s small business hub for Detroit entrepreneurs, where supervised students gain transformational experience as professional service providers and Detroit entrepreneurs access the wrap-around support they need to build self-reliant anchor businesses. Initially designed as an interdisciplinary clinic, DNEP is the only university-based program in the U.S. to train students from multiple disciplines to work as pro bono consultants, building the organizational spine of a business, providing financial, legal, tech, and data consulting and implementation services. As of 2026, DNEP supports 350 businesses per year, in long-term relationships, providing 130 U-M students per year with the transformational opportunity to contribute to a business owner’s vision for their community while gaining foundational consulting skills. 83% of DNEP’s active clients are minority-owned; 67% are women-owned; 75% have five or fewer staff members.
In addition to designing programs, convening partners from U-M and Detroit for collaborative projects, and marshalling resources to keep DNEP’s services free for business owners, Christie occasionally teaches and contributes to research about the needs of microenterprises. She co-designed and taught in DNEP’s summer internship program, Impact Studio for Local Business, which ran for five years, and has taught workshops for the University of Michigan’s Saturdays in the D (adults), Ross School Summer Business Academy (high school students), and Ann Arbor Public Schools (middle schoolers). She also co-designed and secured the initial funding to launch DNEP’s Community Tech Worker project, which trains Detroit residents to provide free 1:1 technology support to small businesses, and taught college students and local residents in that program. 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. Her current hobby business, 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 venture.
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.
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