Public and nonprofit management

Gerber’s research focuses on regionalism and intergovernmental cooperation, sustainable development, urban climate adaptation, transportation policy, community and economic development, local fiscal capacity, and local political accountability.

Hernandez is an internationally recognized scholar with deep expertise in applying behavioral science insights to design and improve organizational systems and decision-making practices. She is widely published in top-tier academic journals and popular media outlets, and serves on several editorial boards. At Michigan, Hernandez teaches courses on leadership and serves as faculty director of the Ford School's Leadership Initiative.

Judge-Lord is a political scientist who studies interactions among interest groups, legislators, and bureaucracies. His current work focuses on how public pressure campaigns affect agency rulemaking, especially climate and environmental justice campaigns. His other research projects address legislator behavior and capacity, money in politics, lobbying, and private governance.

Stephanie Leiser leads the Michigan Local Government Fiscal Health Project at the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP).

Earl Lewis is the Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy, and the founding director of the U-M Center for Social Solutions. From March 2013-2018, he served as president of The...

As an associate professor of public policy and urban planning, Thacher’s research draws from philosophy, history, and the interpretive social sciences to develop and apply a humanistic approach to policy research. Most of his work has focused on criminal justice policy, where he has undertaken studies of order maintenance policing, the local police role in homeland security, community policing reform, the distribution of safety and security, prisoner re-entry, and criminal justice discretion.

Tompkins-Stange is a scholar of education policy and philanthropy, focusing on the influence of private foundations on the politics of K-12 school reform.

Shipan teaches and conducts research on political institutions and policy. Current projects include whether elections lead politicians to avoid passing good policies and whether institutions constrain policymaking in autocracies. His most recent book is Why Bad Policies Spread (and Good Ones Don’t).