A lasting impact

A bold vision. A lasting impact.

The Ford School is a top-ranked policy school at the world-class University of Michigan. Our mission is to inspire and prepare our graduates to take on our communities’ and the world’s most pressing challenges.

Ford School attracts donors who are deeply committed to our mission and want to partner with the Ford School to educate and inspire the next generation of public policy leaders. 

 

Meet our donors

The Ford School puts people together—especially in partnerships across the state—and they interact, and the outcome is the betterment of society, giving all people a voice and a path.”

Hal and Carol Kohn
Harold and Carol Kohn

At the center of the Kohn Collaborative are five endowed professorships specializing in social justice, health and aging, early childhood education, disability rights, and economic policy. The Collaborative also supports exemplary graduate students underrepresented in the public policy field with full-tuition fellowships, an endowed infrastructure fund that will be used to foster new initiatives, and a major social policy impact prize.

Read about the Kohn Collaborative

Diane Swonk Research Fellowship Fund

Diane Swonk (BA ‘84, MAE ‘85) established the fund to support underrepresented economists enter and move up in the field. In addition to financial assistance, the funds help establish critical research and mentoring collaborations between students and faculty.

“When a decision making group more accurately reflects society, they take more time looking at all the facts and discussing different scenarios. There is magic that happens when you have someone different in the room. It’s a win for everyone.”
Read about the research fellowship fund
Weiser Diplomacy Center

"Having young people from the University of Michigan and the Ford School—students who are interested in public service—go out and start to establish those relationships in whatever countries they go to is really important for the future of our nation."

Ambassador Ronald Weiser on the importance of international policy education. The Weiser Diplomacy Center is preparing the next generation of foreign affairs leaders.
Read more about WDC
Student support

"Supporting the Sean Casey Memorial Fund helps students access the Ford School he cared deeply about, a place whose culture reflects the intellectual rigor, humaneness, curiosity, and integrity he embodied."

To honor his legacy, Ford School alumni, friends, and colleagues established the Sean Casey Memorial Fund. The Fund provides tuition and internship support to MPP students, prioritizing first-generation graduate students and those with a demonstrated interest in fostering public engagement in the public policy process.
Read more about the Sean Casey Memorial Fund
Rebecca A. Copeland Scholarship

“It is our intention that the fund at the Ford School support students who share Rebecca’s dreams of improving health and health care for everyone through bold policy change and health system reform.”

David and Elizabeth Copeland, Rebecca's parents, in a joint statement on the fellowship established by the Copeland family in fall 2021 in memory of Rebecca Copeland (MPP/MPH ’21).
Read more
Vandenberg Lecture Series

"Hank has written a beautiful biography of Vandenberg, focused on the role of bipartisan compromise essential to the creation of the post-war international order."

Former Dean Michael S. Barr on Hank Meijer's book about U.S. Senator Arthur Vandenberg. The Meijer Family established the Vandenberg Lecture Series, which focuses on global issues and serves as an intellectual tribute. Their generous gifts also contributed to the Gerald R. Ford Fellowship and the Ford School Leadership Initiative.
Watch Hank Meijer speak about his book "Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century"

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