Domestic policy | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
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Domestic policy

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Emeritus faculty

Mary E. Corcoran

Professor Emerita of Public Policy, Political Science, and Women's and Gender Studies
Mary E. Corcoran is a professor emerita of public policy, political science, and women's studies. Her research focuses on the effects of gender and race discrimination on economic status and earnings, and on professional women's career trajectories.…
Emeritus faculty

Paul N. Courant

Edward M. Gramlich Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Economics and Public Policy
Provost Emeritus Courant has authored half a dozen books and more than six dozen papers covering a broad range of topics in economics and public policy. More recently, his academic work has focused on economic and policy questions relating to universities, libraries and archives, and the effects of new information technologies and other disruptions on scholarship, scholarly publication, and academic libraries.
Emeritus faculty

Alan V. Deardorff

Professor Emeritus of Public Policy
Deardorff’s research focuses on international trade. With Bob Stern, he developed the Michigan Model of World Production and Trade, which has been used to estimate the effects of trade agreements. He is also doing theoretical work in international trade and trade policy. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Labor, State, and Treasury and to international organizations including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Bank.
Visiting faculty

Lori Lightfoot

Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence
Lori Lightfoot served as Chicago's mayor from 2019-2023. She is the second woman, first Black female and first openly gay person in that role. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot served as senior equity partner in the Litigation and Conflict Resolution…
Faculty by courtesy

Amanda Kowalski

Gail Wilensky Professor of Applied Economics and Public Policy
Kowalski is a health economist who specializes in bringing together experiments, models grounded in context-specific knowledge, and econometric techniques to answer questions that inform current debates in health policy.
Core faculty

Richard L. Hall

Professor of Public Policy and Political Science
Richard L. (Rick) Hall is professor emeritus of political science and public policy. He has published widely on American national institutions, including representation in Congress, interest group influence, campaign finance, congressional oversight, issue advertising, and health politics.
Core faculty

Catherine Hausman

Associate Professor of Public Policy
Hausman is an environmental and energy economist, and some of her recent areas of research include electricity markets and climate change; inequality in pollution exposure; and the natural gas sector's role in methane leaks. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research.
Core faculty

Joshua Hausman

Associate Professor of Public Policy; Associate Professor of Economics (by courtesy)
Hausman’s research interests are in economic history and macroeconomics with a focus on the U.S. economy in the 1930s and the Japanese economy today. He is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Core faculty

Brian A. Jacob

Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy; Professor of Public Policy, Economics, and Education
Jacob is co-director of the Youth Policy Lab. His primary fields of interest are labor economics, program evaluation, and the economics of education. Jacob's current research focuses on urban school reform, with a particular emphasis on standards and accountability initiatives.
Core faculty

John Leahy

Allen Sinai Professor of Macroeconomics
John Leahy is the Allen Sinai Professor of Macroeconomics, a joint appointment between the Ford School and the Department of Economics. Much of his work considers the psychological side of consumerism, analyzing individuated, decisionmaking…
Core faculty

Jeffrey D. Morenoff

Associate Dean for Research and Policy Engagement, Professor of Public Policy and Sociology, Director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP)
Morenoff's research interests include neighborhood environments, inequality, crime and criminal justice, the social determinants of health, racial/ethnic/immigrant disparities in health and antisocial behavior, and methods for analyzing multilevel and spatial data.
Core faculty

Don Moynihan

J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy
Donald Moynihan is the Ford School’s J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy. Previously he served as Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy Chair of Public Policy and the director of the La Follette School at the…
Core faculty

Natasha Pilkauskas

Associate Professor of Public Policy
Pilkauskas is a social demographer who studies the social safety net, children's living arrangements, and economic insecurity. Pilkauskas' work considers how social policy might improve the developmental and life trajectories of children living in poverty.
Core faculty

Kaitlin T. Raimi

Associate Professor of Public Policy; Faculty Associate in Psychology; Faculty Associate in Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research
Raimi is a social psychologist focused on climate change beliefs and policy support. She studies how people compare themselves to others, how adopting one pro-environmental behavior affects later action, and how communication affects understanding and support for climate policy and technology.
Core faculty

David E. Thacher

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning
As an associate professor of public policy and urban planning, Thacher’s research draws from philosophy, history, and the interpretive social sciences to develop and apply a humanistic approach to policy research. Most of his work has focused on criminal justice policy, where he has undertaken studies of order maintenance policing, the local police role in homeland security, community policing reform, the distribution of safety and security, prisoner re-entry, and criminal justice discretion.
Core faculty

Justin Wolfers

Professor of Public Policy and Economics (on sabbatical leave)
Wolfers is an economist with broad policy-related interests and experience. He is also affiliated with the NBER, Brookings and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is a contributing columnist for the New York Times and host of the “Think Like An Economist” podcast. He is a popular teacher and author of a leading economics textbook.

Service to Service

National Service to Service InitiativeVeterans and military families seeking careers in public service now have greater access to graduate education and career development support through Service to Service, a national initiative led by the Volcker...

Ford50

Fifty years ago, in 1974, at a time of great division and turbulence in the U.S., Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States.President Ford's legacy is very much alive here at the Ford School of Public Policy, and we are...

Kohn Collaborative for Social Policy

The Kohn Collaborative for Social Policy advances research and policy solutions, and works with policymakers and stakeholders to promote a more inclusive, just society for all. The collaborative consists of four pillars: Kohn Professors, Kohn...
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...
State & Hill

Improving disability care through Medicaid reform

May 9, 2025
If you ask Vincent Pinti (MPP/JD '27) why he entered the dual degree master’s of public policy and law program at the University of Michigan, he’ll tell you that he didn’t have a...
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...
State & Hill

Import tariffs and their effects

May 8, 2025
The economics of tariffs is surprisingly simple: they are a tax, which raises the price that buyers pay and that competing sellers inside the country can...
State & Hill

Q&A - Pete Buttigieg

May 8, 2025
In his last public event as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg visited the Ford School for a conversation on investments in infrastructure. Below is an excerpt from an interview with S&H....
State & Hill

Trump in international comparative context: another Hungary?

May 8, 2025
Cavaillé: A large and growing number of voters have found in political figures like Trump, Meloni, Orban, and Le Pen a home to express their grievances over the state of the economy, their own socioeconomic status, and immigration...
State & Hill

A house on fire: rescuing state capacity

May 8, 2025
Moynihan: "State capacity” is hard to define and measure, and is perhaps seen as boring, but capacity is the hidden glue that holds public policy together, or, when debased, causes public policy to fall apart. If you care about the quality of...
State & Hill

Spotlights, spring 2025

May 7, 2025
Dean Watkins-Hayes, at the Congressional Breakfast in DC, with Michigan in Washington undergraduates Ajay Morelli, Malinda Brunk, Rachel Ellisen, and Isaac Davis, and Riecker Fellow Hope Wang (MPP...