Stephanie Chang, Diana Flora named 2011 David Bohnett Foundation Leadership and Public Service Fellows

The Ford School is pleased to announce our 2011 David Bohnett Foundation Leadership and Public Service Fellows, Stephanie Chang and Diana Flora.

The Bohnett award is a prestigious, competitive fellowship that will provide two years of tuition support and a paid summer internship in the City of Detroit mayor's office.

This fall, Stephanie Chang will start a dual masters degree program with the Ford School and the U-M School of Social Work. She earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the U-M in 2005, along with a minor in Asian Pacific Islander American Studies (APIA). She is interested in immigrants' rights, criminal justice reform, education, and other domestic social policy issues.

Stephanie lives in Detroit and currently serves as the deputy director for the Campaign for Justice, which heads a broad-based coalition of organizations and individuals from across the political spectrum fighting for a fair and effective public defense system in Michigan. She previously served as an organizer for Michigan United/One United Michigan, building local volunteer-led coalitions to educate the public about affirmative action and mobilize voter opposition to Proposal 2 in 2006. She is the board president of APIAVote-Michigan, which serves the APIA community through civic participation, advocacy, and education. She is also active in other community organizations and boards.

Diana Flora will pursue dual masters degrees in public policy and urban planning. She is interested in integrating the technical expertise, spatial reasoning, and historical context of planning with the political analysis and quantitative training of public policy.

Diana grew up in Bay City, but became involved in Detroit issues as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, where she participated in several programs that focused on volunteerism and social activism in Southeast Michigan, such as the Detroit Initiative, America Reads, Project Community, and Semester in Detroit.

After graduation, Diana moved to Southwest Detroit and spent the next year as an AmeriCorps member through Operation Frontline, a nutrition education program targeted at low-income families. She also served on the board of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) and later managed the political campaign of State Representative Rashida Tlaib during the 2010 primaries.

David Bohnett Leadership and Public Service Fellows apply the academic training they receive at the Ford School to benefit the people and government of Detroit, Michigan. Fellows will receive two years of in-state tuition support at the Ford School and will intern at the highest level of the City of Detroit mayor's office, working directly with a Group Executive on the mayor's policy priorities.

Read more about the fellowship and last year's incoming Bohnett Fellows.