Type: Public event
Host: Ford School

Creating opportunity for America's youth: Anatomy of a public policy challenge

Date & time

Apr 13, 2015, 4:00-5:30 pm EDT

Location

Weill Hall, Annenberg Auditorium
735 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

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About the lecture:

Improving life outcomes for opportunity youth -  the 6.7 million young people aged 16-24 who are out of school and/or work – is a moral imperative and economic necessity. Their disconnection—often precipitated or exacerbated by the failure of critical education, training, and social service systems—places an enormous and unnecessary economic burden on our nation. Melody Barnes will examine efforts to address this challenge and to improve the coordination of the many systems and diverse actors who serve this group of young people. Through the dissection of this issue, Barnes will offer her reflections on the interplay and roles of government (federal, state and local), the private and nonprofit sectors, philanthropy, communications,  and public engagement in the policy making process.

From the speaker's bio:

Melody Barnes is a Senior Advisor of Albright Stonebridge Group, CEO of Melody Barnes Solutions LLC, and Vice Provost for Global Student Leadership Initiatives and Senior Fellow at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. She serves as chair of the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions and on the Board of Directors of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. From January 2009 until January 2012, Ms. Barnes was Assitant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Prior to her service in the Obama Administration, Ms. Barnes worked on the Senate Judiciary Committee under Edward M. Kennedy, was appointed Director of Legislative Affairs for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and served as a Principal at The Raben Group. She began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in New York City. Ms. Barnes received her law degree from the University of Michigan and her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she graduated with honors in history.

 

Co-sponsored by the Center for Public Policy in Diverse Societies.