Ford School News | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Showing 1 - 24 of 24 results
Alumni spotlight

Jessica Gillooly helps cities reimagine 911 responses

May 9, 2025
Sociologist Jessica Gillooly (PhD ’20) has used her deep knowledge of call taking and dispatching, along with some compelling new theoretical ideas, to become one of the leading experts on this issue. Her expertise is helping inform and shape the...
Alumni spotlight

Building futures in the regional economy

May 9, 2025
As vice president of regional initiatives for the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership, Tayrn MacFarlane (MBA/MPP ’08) unites local officials, business leaders, educational institutions, and community organizations from northern Indiana and...
Alumni spotlight

Strange bedfellows for a cleaner NYC

May 9, 2025
When Emma Renzi Wise (BA ’19) got hooked on learning about environmental policy at the Ford School, she never imagined working for the New York City Department of Sanitation. But nearly six years after leaving Ann Arbor, Wise is the community...
Alumni spotlight

Kristy Hartman (MPP ‘13) informs and supports state energy policy

Jun 28, 2021
Before she took a position at the Nuclear Energy Institute as the director of stakeholder strategy & engagement, Kristy Hartman (MPP ‘13) served as the energy program director at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). NCSL’s energy...
Alumni spotlight

Interview with MPP, STPP alum Melvin Washington II

Mar 4, 2021
Melvin Washington is an alumnus of the Ford School’s Master of Public Policy Program and the Science, Technology, & Public Policy Graduate Certificate Program. In his role as a Program Associate at the Vera Institute of Justice, he puts this passion...
Alumni spotlight

Sen. Chang (MPP/MSW ‘14) commitment to public service

Aug 21, 2020
Senator Stephanie Chang (MPP/MSW '14) entered graduate school with the long-term goal of running a non-profit. With community organizing experience under her belt, she started at the Ford School and School of Social Work to enhance her quantitative...
Alumni spotlight

Seeking asylum rights during the pandemic

Aug 20, 2020
In February 2019, Hardy Vieux (MPP/JD '97) traveled to Tijuana, Mexico, to better understand the needs of asylum seekers at the United States’ southern border. That trip laid the foundation for a program to help people navigate the process, at the...
Alumni spotlight

Brandy Johnson (MPP ‘09) makes college accessible in Michigan

Jul 29, 2020
Increasing college access has been a top priority for Brandy Johnson (MPP '09). What started as a $2 million grant application Johnson was asked to write during her Ford School internship with Governor Granholm evolved into the highly successful...