Dear friends:
Greetings from beautiful springtime Ann Arbor! We’re feeling tremendous pride and excitement in our newest alumni (view videos from a beautiful Commencement Ceremony here), our growing faculty, and in our school’s momentum and bright future.
We’ve had an extremely successful year bringing in new faculty to build our strength in key areas. Intellectual powerhouse Brendan Nyhan will join us in the fall. And we added to our international development expertise with the hire of two highly sought after young scholars: Yusuf Neggers, who does path-breaking work on institutional reform in India, and Eduardo Montero, who studies development reform in Latin and Central America, will join the Ford School this fall as assistant professors.
Other superstar faculty received well-earned promotions. Read a Q&A with newly appointed full professor Shobita Parthasarathy here. And join me in congratulating newly tenured associate professor of public policy Joy Rohde and Kristin Seefeldt, promoted to associate professor of social work and public policy.
Those faculty and so many others are deeply engaged with the real world. We’re taking steps to build on that strength: with a generous gift of $1.5 million from Phil and Kathy Power through the Power Foundation, we’ve launched a new program at the Ford School to encourage partnerships between our faculty and students, and policy and community leaders near and far.
Under the leadership of our associate dean Elisabeth Gerber, the Program in Practical Policy Engagement, or P3E, will put Ford School know-how and energy to work, collaborating with policy leaders to provide engaged learning opportunities for our students, to develop policy-relevant research, and to find creative solutions to real-world problems, in Michigan, and around the world.
Students are having an impact as well. Read PhD candidate Jessica Gillooly’s groundbreaking proposal for reducing dangerous police-citizen encounters here, in her Washington Post op-ed. This edition of ‘the feed’ features a check-in, too, with MPP student Jackson Voss, who is serving in the office of Senator Gary Peters as the 2018 Riecker Fellow.
That’s a lot of good news and momentum to celebrate! Please join a Ford School toast in your city on July 12th, when we’ll gather for the 8th Annual Worldwide Spirit Day. RSVP for one of 6 locations now, or contact Elisabeth Johnston to set up a party in your hometown.
Best regards,
Michael S. Barr
Joan and Sanford Weill Dean, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Frank Murphy Collegiate Professor of Public Policy
Roy and Jean Humphrey Proffitt Professor of Law
University of Michigan