Alumni Board members

Sam Conchuratt is a senior policy advisor on the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, where he advises Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on issues related to the Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. An elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Conchuratt focuses on developing and advancing solutions to make it easier for seniors, people with disabilities, and their families to live and work with dignity. Conchuratt received his BA from Xavier University where he was a 4-year member of the men's Division-1 swim team. Conchuratt resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife, Sophie (M.P.P. '20), and their dog, Bennett.

Eliza Erickson is the director of Permit, License and Certification (PLC) Innovation in the Office of Governor Josh Shapiro. As a senior member of the newly formed Office of Transformation & Opportunity, Erickson leads efforts to reform, improve, and innovate permit processes across Commonwealth agencies. Prior to joining the Shapiro Administration, Erickson served as the director of innovation & strategy for the City of Philadelphia, where she spent nine years building and growing a nationally recognized model of government innovation called “People, Place, Process,” and managed a flagship portfolio of programs, including an Innovation Academy, Lab and Fund. She studied history and religious studies at the University of Virginia, and subsequently received her master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan. Erickson has extensive experience in strategic planning, design thinking, and civic engagement—but her true passion is exploring Philadelphia with her husband, two kids, and rescue pit bull, Brew.

Jasmine Kaltenbach (she/her) is a labor policy expert and advocate. She leads a community and labor initiative, the Home Rule Project - Michigan, which educates workers and community members on labor and housing preemption laws that block local organizing. She is building the Home Rule Project from the ground up, in charge of all education, lobbying, communication, and strategy. She previously worked on the Michigan AFL-CIO’s government affairs team, where she ran the legislative advocacy campaign for the repeal of the state's “right-to-work” laws and landmark pro-labor energy legislation. She also led the development of the Michigan AFL-CIO’s first digital scorecard, first advocacy website, and first policy guide for local elected officials—a project she began while a BA student at the Ford School. A seasoned political operative and policy professional, Kaltenbach worked on campaigns for multiple levels of government and is particularly interested in addressing power vacuums at the local and state level and in driving more Fordies to get involved in state and local politics. She lives in Detroit, Michigan.

Tara Lanigan is a policy and partnerships leader at the intersection of technology, transportation, and innovation. She currently serves as senior director for strategic partnerships at the NSF Engineering Research Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3) at Columbia University, where she connects public agencies and industry with cutting-edge research in digital infrastructure. She previously served as a Presidential Management Fellow and policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Technology and Research, as Deputy Director for Sustainability at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and as head of policy at May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle startup in Ann Arbor. She lives in New York City with her husband David, their daughter Norah, and their dog Remy.

Laurel Ruza is an associate at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer in New York, where she focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation and white collar defense and investigations. She also maintains an active pro bono practice, focused on civil rights litigation.
Prior to attending law school, Ruza worked in politics and campaigns, including on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She returned to Ann Arbor to attend Michigan Law School before relocating to New York City.

Pablo Velázquez completed his Master's Degree in Public Policy in 2014. In addition to this degree, he obtained a university degree in Industrial Engineering in 2009 and, in 2014, a PhD in Economics from the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City.
He has worked in the housing, credit, hydrocarbons, and education sectors in Mexico. Since 2020, he has been part of INFONAVIT, the largest mortgage lender in Latin America.
Velazquez is Mexican and has lived in Mexico City since 2010. He is married and expecting his first child in June 2026.

Tosha Downey, a founding consultant of Living & Learning Solutions LLC, is currently enjoying a year-long sabbatical with a commitment to family and personal restoration. She is a former senior program officer for state and local government relations for Tennessee at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She previously served as vice president of advocacy for the Memphis Education Fund (MEF), a partner organization in Memphis’ effort to transform chronically underperforming schools. A native Memphian, Tosha has spent more than 25 years leading work in policy, philanthropy, charter school management, college access and recruitment, community engagement, and talent acquisition. She has also served as director of government affairs at the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago, IL, and worked for the Academy for Urban School Leadership, Comer Science & Education Foundation, and the Ryan Family Foundation. She is a graduate of Leadership Memphis, the New Memphis Institute’s Leadership Development Intensive, and Leadership Tennessee. She sits on the Board of Utmost U, the Memphis Education Fund, and the South City Development Corporation. In addition to her MPP from the Ford School, Tosha earned her BA in Education at Clark Atlanta University and a JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Franklin Esson Jr. is a government affairs coordinator and lobbyist for the New York State Association of REALTORS® (NYSAR), a 63,000-member, not-for-profit trade association. Prior to joining NYSAR in 2018, he held multiple public and private sector positions, including serving as the director of the New York State Senate’s Higher Education Committee where he developed and managed the committee’s legislative agenda for post-secondary schools and licensed professions. He also worked as a legislative budget analyst in the State Senate and Assembly in New York. Esson previously served as a trustee of a charter school in the Albany, NY area and lives in Stillwater, NY with his wife, Sarah, and son, Caleb.

William Feuer is a director at DCI Group, a DC-based independent public affairs firm that specializes in public relations, crisis management, grassroots engagement and digital advocacy. Feuer is expanding DCI Group's presence to New York, where he advises clients across various sectors, including financial services, healthcare and energy. He joined DCI Group after a career in journalism that included stints at CNBC, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Lauren.

Safiya Merchant works on the policy team at the City of Detroit's Housing & Revitalization Department, where she focuses on strategy development, policy research and analysis, and community engagement on affordable housing and homelessness issues. Before starting her public policy career, she worked in higher education communications and as a journalist. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 2014, she worked for newspapers in the Chicago area and Calhoun County, Michigan, where she developed a passion for community-centered policymaking. Born and raised in Chicago, Merchant is a proud graduate of Chicago Public Schools.

Jim Potter is an accomplished healthcare advocate and association executive, currently serving as the executive director for 4As Health. He previously served in senior management and advocacy positions with the American Medical Association and national specialty organizations, including radiology, speech-language pathology and physician assistants.
Potter has been awarded the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation and the Vice President’s Hammer Award for developing consensus legislation and regulations to advance breast cancer detection and treatment. His advocacy work has been recognized by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) with its highest honor—The Summit Award—for advancing early detection and intervention for children with hearing loss. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife Karen and their four children, enjoys playing golf and hiking with his dog, Harry.

Kevin Sweitzer is a state and local government consultant with Guidehouse, where he supports clients with the administration of large-scale government programs and strategy development that focuses on government effectiveness and service delivery. Sweitzer is passionate about transportation and urban policy. He previously interned with the U.S. Department of Transportation. While he was at the Ford School, Sweitzer was involved with several student organizations and groups and is eager to support BA students as they navigate the program and transition into the professional world. Sweitzer is originally from Lansing, MI and currently resides in Washington, DC.

Michael T. Cahill is a professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, where he was also
President and Dean from July 2019 to July 2023. He was previously on its faculty from 2003–16, leaving from 2016–19 to serve as Co-Dean and professor of law at Rutgers Law School. Cahill’s scholarship focuses primarily on criminal law; he has also written and taught courses about health law and policy, as well as teaching the introductory property course. Before joining the Brooklyn faculty, he was involved as staff director and consultant, respectively, for major criminal code reform projects in the states of Illinois and Kentucky. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Rosalyn Scaff (whom he met at the University of Michigan, from which she received two master’s in 1999) and their two children.

Olga Ioffe Kasher has 24-plus years of experience in results measurement and evaluation, donor, and investor relations, fundraising, and communications in major international development organizations. Currently, Ioffe Kasher is a consultant with the International Finance Corporation’s Financial Institutions and Creating Markets Advisory Groups that support teams in Africa and the Middle East. Prior to the International Finance Corporation, Ioffe Kasher worked with the United Nations Development Program in New York as well as the World Bank in Washington DC. Loffe Kasher is originally from Kazakhstan and became a Wolverine in 1994 as an undergraduate (BA’97), and earned her MPP in 1999.

Sophia Kittler is the director of innovation and the deputy budget director for San Francisco Mayor London Breed. She has spent the last five years as a member of the mayor's senior staff in various policy and operational roles. Prior to joining city government, Kittler held various roles at the intersection of finance, technology, and social impact, including work at an impact investing venture fund; product design at financial institutions; and research at TechCrunch. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, her two year old son, and her four year old Alaskan Malador.

DJ McKerr is the Vice President of Strategic Operations & Innovation role at Gastro Health, one of the largest independent gastroenterology platforms in the United States. In this role, he focuses on enterprise growth and value creation, splitting his time between mergers & acquisitions and high-impact strategic initiatives across the organization. He works closely with physician leaders and executive teams to scale clinical platforms, enhance operational performance, and build differentiated capabilities in specialty care.
Prior to joining Gastro Health, McKerr was a Principal in Kearney’s Healthcare & Life Sciences practice, where he spent over a decade advising payers, providers, integrated delivery networks, value-based care organizations, private equity sponsors, and pharmacies on their most mission-critical challenges. His work focused on strategy, transformation, and growth across the healthcare continuum.
McKerr holds a BA in Public Policy from the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His grandfather, Bob McKerr (MPA ’58), is also a Ford School alumnus and a previous recipient of the Neil Staebler Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

Kelsey Rhodes (she/her) is the communications director at Physicians for Reproductive Health, a national physician advocacy nonprofit organizing, mobilizing, and amplifying the voices of medical providers to advance sexual and reproductive health. She is responsible for conducting media training for over 500 physicians across the country who are committed to protecting and expanding abortion access in the United States. She has advanced the organization’s storytelling, message development, and training since 2016. Rhodes has prepared physician advocates for critical hearings on reproductive and sexual health before Congress and for roundtables at the White House and has been involved with the crafting of numerous amicus briefs for cases on reproductive health before the Supreme Court. Rhodes also serves as the Missouri State trainer for the organization Self Managed Abortion; Safe and Supported. She lives in Kansas City, MO.

Cortney Sanders is a policy expert and strategist focused on social insurance, fiscal
policy, and racial economic equity. She currently serves as Director of the National Jobs
for All Network at The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New
School. Previously, Sanders served as a Political Appointee for the Biden-Harris
Administration in the Office of the Commissioner at the U.S. Social Security
Administration, Senior Manager at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP),
where she co-led the State Policy Equity Initiative, and Special Advisor to Poverty
Solutions at the University of Michigan. She is a former Aspen Institute William Hearst
Fellow and Aspen Ideas Fellow. She was named one of Women We Admire’s Top 50
Women in Washington, D.C. (2026). Sanders holds a Bachelor’s of Government from
the University of Texas, Austin and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Megan Connors is a second-year MPP candidate at the Ford School of Public Policy. She has a BA in Public Policy from Stanford University and a MA in Teaching of Social Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University. Before beginning her MPP, she taught her favorite subject, AP Human Geography, for seven years at a public high school in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to her position on the Alumni Board, Connors is the co-chair of Women and Gender in Public Policy (WGPP) and has research positions with Ford School Professor Justin Wolfers, as well as Professor Kara Finnigan with the Marsal School Education. After graduating, Connors hopes to pursue a career that leverages the power of policy to help more people live their version of a good life. In particular, she is interested in the intersection of education, housing, and economic mobility. In her free time, Connors loves to cook, travel, listen to podcasts, and overanalyze television.

Joshua Crook is a senior studying public policy with a focus on economics and development and a minor in international studies. At the Ford School, Crook serves as a peer advisor, Bridge Builder research assistant, and the vice president of the Undergraduate Council. Crook is also a research assistant at the National Center of School Safety and serves on the Provost’s Undergraduate Advisory Council. After graduation, Crook plans to pursue an MPP with a focus on social welfare policy.

Rohan Dharan graduated with a BA from the Ford School in 2013, with a focus in education policy. After graduating, Rohan was a Teach for America corps member in Las Vegas where he taught 1st and 4th grade. He then spent a year in India teaching spoken English at a school in New Delhi through the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant scholarship. He has lived in Washington, DC since 2016. He spent over 9 years working in the central office of the DC Public School system. He currently works for the College Board where he leads implementation work for the Educator Community team, providing professional learning opportunities for Advanced Placement (AP) teachers. In his free time, Rohan loves to travel, try new restaurants, and go for long walks with his wife and dog