Poverty and social policy

Bagenstos specializes in constitutional and civil rights litigation, with interests in labor and employment, disability rights, and housing. He currently serves as general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is on leave from the university.

Cohodes is a leading education policy economist who uses quantitative causal inference methods to evaluate policies and programs. She is known for her influential research on charter schools. Her research focuses on school choice, programs for high-achieving students, and settings that support access to high-quality education.

Gerber’s research focuses on regionalism and intergovernmental cooperation, sustainable development, urban climate adaptation, transportation policy, community and economic development, local fiscal capacity, and local political accountability.

Henry has written and published on the political economy of social voice, memory, trauma, identity, peace processes, Truth Commissions, international transitional justice and international humanitarian law. His research and writing projects focus on how structural and administrative violence come to be institutionalized during post-colonial transitions. His current work is on the discourse of human rights, structural violence and the politics of official voice.

Pamela Herd is the Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy and faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research Population Studies Center. Her research focuses on inequality and how it intersects with health, aging, and policy. She is als...

Michelmore is a leading scholar and educator on the social safety net, education policy, labor economics, and economic demography. She is a recognized expert on the efficacy of the Earned Income Tax Credit and its impact on children.

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.

Parthasarathy studies the governance of emerging science and technology and the politics of evidence and expertise in policy in comparative and international perspective. Her current research focuses on equity in innovation and innovation policy. She co-hosts The Received Wisdom podcast.

Luke Shaefer serves as the inaugural director of Poverty Solutions, an interdisciplinary, presidential initiative at U-M that seeks to partner communities and policymakers to find new ways to prevent and alleviate poverty.

Watkins-Hayes is an internationally recognized scholar and expert widely credited for her research at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and human service institutions, with a special focus on HIV/AIDS; poverty; and race, class, and gender studies. Dr. Watkins-Hayes has published three books, numerous journal and edited volume articles, and pieces in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Chicago Magazine.

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.

Dr. John Ayanian is the Alice Hamilton Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Healthcare Policy, the Alice Hamilton Collegiate Professor of Medicine at the Medical School, and professor of health management and policy at the School of Pub...

A sociologist, Burgard’s research focuses on the way systems of stratification and inequality impact the health of people and populations. Much of her work focuses on socioeconomic, gender, and racial/ethnic disparities in working lives and the relationships between working careers and health. She studies mental and physical health, as well as health behaviors, with a particular interest in sleep. In related work, she has studied the impact of recessions on well-being.

Pam Jagger is a professor at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, with a courtesy appointment at the Ford School. She is an applied political economist whose research focuses on the dynamics of poverty and environment interactions in lo...

Alexandra K. Murphy is an assistant professor of sociology and a faculty affiliate of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, with a courtesy appointment at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Poli...

Seefeldt’s primary research interests lie in exploring how low-income individuals understand their situations, particularly around issues related to work and economic well being. Currently, she is conducting research on families’ financial coping strategies and is a Principal Investigator of a survey examining the effects of the recession and recovery policies on individuals’ well being.

A social demographer, Lantz studies the role of public policy in improving population health and reducing social disparities in health. She is currently engaged in research regarding innovative financing approaches for supportive housing among Medicaid beneficiaries, and also on how COVID-19 is exacerbating existing social and health inequalities in the U.S.

Jared is interested in issues of poverty and inequality, especially the role of education in social stratification; the role of research in public policy; and quantitative methodology. After completing his MPP at University of Michigan, he worked at ...