The Ford School is welcoming new and returning scholars, artists, and policy experts in 2026, while celebrating the promotion of three accomplished faculty members and new roles for longtime members of the school community. Together, they bring expertise in education, energy and climate, poverty and social policy, racial and economic inequality, the arts, and public engagement.
Faculty leadership and appointments
As of July 2026, the University of Michigan Regents approved Brian Jacob as the Ford School's associate dean for research and engagement. Taking over this role from Jeffrey Morenoff, Jacob will help advance the Ford School's research enterprise and strengthen connections between scholarship and policy impact. Jacob is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and professor of economics at the Ford School, co-director of the Youth Policy Lab, founding director of the Education Policy Initiative, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on the economics of education, with work spanning early childhood education to college. He is specifically interested in identifying policies with the ability to improve outcomes for all children and increase economic mobility for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Mo Torres (MPP '15) is now an assistant professor of public policy following his three-year appointment as a Michigan Society of Fellows postdoctoral scholar and assistant professor at the Ford School.
A sociologist, Torres studies political economy, urban politics, and race and class inequality. His current book project examines the politics of fiscal crisis and urban austerity in Michigan from the 1970s to the present. His other research addresses neighborhood inequality, banking and payday lending, policing, and the sociology of race and racism. Torres earned his PhD in sociology from Harvard University.
Faculty promotions
On May 21, the University of Michigan Board of Regents approved the promotions of Catherine Hausman, Katherine Michelmore, and Natasha Pilkauskas to professor of public policy, with tenure.
An economist, Hausman studies how energy-market design and regulation affect economic well-being, equity, and environmental outcomes. Her research examines electricity transmission and markets, air pollution, energy costs, and other issues central to the clean-energy transition. Her work has informed legislation and regulatory rulemaking. At the Ford School, Hausman helped redesign the statistics curriculum, launch the online Master of Public Affairs program, and establish an environment, energy, and policy concentration for master's students.
Michelmore studies tax policy, social welfare programs, education policy, and child and family well-being. Her research has advanced understanding of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, financial aid, and free school meals. Her work on the HAIL Scholarship, a U-M initiative that increased college access for students from low-income households, has informed policy in Michigan and beyond. Michelmore received the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management's 2024 David N. Kershaw Award and Prize and was elected to the National Academy of Social Insurance.
A scholar of family demography and social welfare policy, Pilkauskas examines how family structure, economic hardship, and safety-net policies affect families with low incomes. Her research on multigenerational households, housing, living arrangements, tax-credit exposure, and child and family well-being has contributed to academic scholarship and policy design. Pilkauskas was recently named associate faculty director at U-M's Poverty Solutions and was elected to the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2025.
Visiting policymaker in residence
Multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, and writer Holly Bass will join the Ford School in fall 2026 as a Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence. Her award-winning work spans dance, theater, poetry, photography, installation, video, and performance, using the arts to examine American history, social justice, national identity, and generational labor.
Bass will teach "Arts-Full Strategies for Public Policy," a course exploring how improvisation, creative community engagement, and other artistic practices can inform policymaking in areas including public health, education, and criminal justice.
During the 2025–26 academic year, Bass served as a visiting fellow at the Ford School's Center for Racial Justice and as the Roman J. Witt Visiting Artist. Her residency supported the development of We Hold These Truths…, an exhibition opening at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in October 2026. Bass previously directed arts programming for adjudicated youth in Washington, DC, and served as national director of Turnaround Arts at the Kennedy Center, a program that expands access to the arts in under-resourced schools.
New postdoctoral fellow
Natalie May is a postdoctoral research fellow affiliated with the Education Policy Initiative, working on a research-practice partnership with the Mississippi Department of Education Office of Early Childhood Education. Her research interests include implementation and scaling, collaborative structures of research, and programs that support the social-emotional development of teachers and students from pre-K through 12th grade. She holds a PhD in applied psychology with a focus in mixed methods from New York University and an MA and BA in psychology from Wesleyan University.