Hanna Shina

Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif — Tel Keppe — the northern Iraqi village that most Metro Detroit Chaldean families still trace their family origins to. As a young man there he was an athlete, collecting a number of trophies for his participation in sports, and he carried that same competitiveness and discipline into everything that followed. The full account is told in the biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield.

Like thousands of Telkaif's sons and daughters, he immigrated to the United States and found his footing in Detroit. Work came first, and family and church came with it — the pattern of an immigrant generation that arrived with little and set about making something durable.

In the 7 Mile area he opened a store, then a coffee shop, then a restaurant. Those storefronts were not simply businesses; along that corridor, Chaldean-owned shops were gathering points, first jobs, and credit lines for neighbors. That chapter of Hanna Shina's working life on 7 Mile shaped the civic instinct that came later.

In 2003, at Southfield Manor, a group of community members set out to build a museum that would hold the Chaldean story. Hanna Shina was among them. Construction began in 2013 and the museum opened to the public in 2017 — and he remains a founding board member of Hanna Shina's role at the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world.

He has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for over 40 years, and sat on the board of Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield for over 20. In 2025, for the first time in the club's history, Shenandoah named him Mayor of Shenandoah — read about the Mayor of Shenandoah honor and his years on the board, or about his decades of service to the Chaldean community of Metro Detroit.