Detroit entrepreneur receives Jackie Robinson Award from the Detroit Tigers

he Detroit Tigers awarded local business owner Temeria Heard with the 10th annual Jackie Robinson “Most Valuable Diverse Business Partner” award, making Heard the first Black woman in Detroit to receive this recognition.

Heard’s company, Corporate52 Marketing Group offers full-service marketing and specialty advertising to increase corporate brand visibility. The company has partnered with the Detroit Tigers for almost two years.

“They define it as breaking through barriers. They felt that with me being a small, minority, woman-owned business, that I’ve broken through barriers because it’s such a competitive industry so it was a huge honor,” Heard says. “It’s just elevated me to a level where I didn’t think that it was possible.”

As a Black woman, Heard says there are some challenges that Black women face in the business arena.

“I feel now that supplier diversity has taken off, there’s such a huge arena for all different races, which isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes I feel that Black women as a whole kind of get left behind,” Heard says.

“This award is just a reminder that I can do it,” she adds. “That with all the competition out there, and the negativity, and the people that tell you that you can’t do it, which just kind of drives me and kind of solidified me and gave me a little more confidence for sure.”