Dear friends,
With the academic year underway, Weill Hall is filled with the exchange of ideas that define the Ford School. As we welcome new and returning Fordies, I am inspired by the many ways our community is advancing the public good through learning, research, service, and thoughtful engagement with the most consequential policy questions of our time.
This year, we welcome four new doctoral students, 88 residential MPP and MPA students (including 15 international students), 102 BA juniors, and 40 new public policy minors. Our BA program now enrolls a record 203 juniors and seniors—a remarkable milestone for the program.
The Online Master of Public Affairs program welcomes its second cohort this fall: 23 experienced professionals from six states and Washington, DC. They bring perspectives from a range of fields, including government, nonprofit organizations, education, law enforcement, the military, and the private sector. Their participation reflects how the Ford School is expanding access to a U-M public policy education for people already making a difference in their professions and communities.
Our faculty have been equally busy pursuing ambitious work with real-world impact. Several Ford School projects are supported by the University of Michigan's inaugural Strategic Initiative Fund, including the new Center for Democracy & Civic Empowerment, which will be housed at the Ford School and led by Jenna Bednar. Other funded work will expand the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study, monitor food hardship nationwide, examine Michigan's automotive and energy transition, and strengthen maritime innovation and workforce development in the Great Lakes region.
Faculty members have also secured significant support to study Michigan's universal school meals program, identify and share effective early-childhood curricula, and help states respond to changes in federal nutrition assistance policy.
And finally, a robust season of public events reflects our commitment to thoughtful exchange on democracy, social policy, education, and national security. September highlights included U-M Democracy Week, the Kohn Social Policy Conference in Detroit, and the Josh Rosenthal Education Fund Lecture featuring Peter Bergen. In the weeks ahead, we look forward to conversations about the evolving U.S.–Africa relationship, the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence in health care, and American leadership abroad—including the Arthur Vandenberg Lecture featuring former Ambassador and U.S. Senator Jeff Flake.
I hope you will join us for these important conversations and for Homecoming at the Ford School, October 16–18. Whether in Weill Hall or from afar, your engagement strengthens our community and our collective commitment to building a better future.
Warmly,
Celeste Watkins-Hayes
Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor
Professor of Sociology
