2026 40 Under 40 Honoree: Demi Kolke (39)
“I tried to use my position for good, and use that positioning to benefit the community.”
PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA
Demi Kolke
Director of Community Investments, Neighborhood Allies
Community development, Demi Kolke will tell you, is “very, very slow. It’s littered with red tape and social inequities.” Kolke has spent 15 years learning how to navigate both.
After beginning at the Homewood-Brushton YMCA as a social work graduate student, she worked at Operation Better Block and later inside city government as a senior planner.
Today, as Neighborhood Allies’ director of community investments, she works across real estate development and small business support.
One project stays with her: working alongside Tina Daniels, a Black contractor turned developer, as Daniels completed four affordable homes in Homewood. She also works closely with minority- and women – owned businesses, whose persistence she describes as both humbling and motivating. “It takes so much grit and dedication and an unwavering belief, especially because they’re starting much further behind the start line,” Kolke says.
Her hope, she says, is “to help break down barriers” and “really level the playing field” for people working to build their businesses, homes and communities.
