Stories that Shape Policy: Immigrant Narratives in the Public Sphere
Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series
Speaker
Stephanie Chang, William D. LopezDate & time
Location
The Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series and the Center for Racial Justice invite you to a compelling lunchtime conversation with Michigan State Senator Stephanie Chang (MPP/MSW '14), and Dr. William D. Lopez. The speakers will examine the urgent significance of uplifting immigrant stories in today's complex political climate and how sharing lived experiences helps humanize policy debates, shape social understanding, and counter misinformation about immigration. Lunch provided.
About the speakers
Senator Stephanie Chang (MPP/MSW '14) is the first Asian American woman elected to the Michigan legislature. She worked as a community organizer in Detroit for nearly a decade before serving two terms in the Michigan House of Representatives and then as the Democratic Floor Leader for her first term in the Senate. She is currently serving her second term in the Michigan Senate and is the Senate Democratic Policy and Steering Chair.
Dr. William Lopez is a clinical associate professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. His research, teaching, and writing consider the experiences of immigrants in the rural U.S. as they survive and thrive amid the threat of deportation. In Raiding the Heartland: An American Story of Deportation and Resistance, his follow-up to his award-winning first book, he writes about how immigrant communities in the interior of the United States were impacted by and responded to the worksite raids that occurred during the first Trump administration.
Moderator Dr. Mara Cecilia Ostfeld is the research director at the Center for Racial Justice and a research associate professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She also serves as a faculty lead of the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study—an ongoing, representative survey of Detroit households that captures residents’ expectations, perceptions, priorities, and aspirations.