Public and nonprofit management | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
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Public and nonprofit management

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Emeritus faculty

John R. Chamberlin

Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Political Science
John joined the IPPS faculty in 1970. He retired in 2014 after 43 years on the faculty. He taught MPP courses in Statistics, Applied Regression, Values and Ethics, and Nonprofit Policy and Management. He was the first director of the BA program at the Ford School.
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

Barry Rabe

J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy
Rabe examines the political feasibility and durability of environmental and energy policy, with a particular emphasis on efforts to address climate change in the U.S. and other federal systems. His most recent books examine the politics of carbon pricing and the limitations of unilateral executive branch policy actions. Current research explores the politics of intensive but short-lived greenhouse gases, such as methane and HFCs. Recent policy engagement includes work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, the Department of Commerce, and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
Emeritus faculty

Janet A. Weiss

Mary C. Bromage Collegiate Professor Emerita of Business; Professor Emerita of Public Policy
Weiss does research on policies to improve the leadership and management of public and nonprofit agencies. Weiss founded the Nonprofit and Public Management Center, and is currently the faculty director of the Nonprofit Board Fellowship program. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
Emeritus faculty

Marina v. Whitman

Professor Emerita of Public Policy and Business Administration
Marina v.N. Whitman is professor emerita of business administration and public policy. From 1979 until 1992 she was an officer of the General Motors Corporation, first as vice president and chief economist and later as vice president and group…
Faculty by courtesy

Daniel E. Little

Professor of Sociology; Professor of Public Policy (by courtesy); Chancellor Emeritus, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Daniel Little is a professor of sociology at UM-Ann Arbor, with a courtesy appointment at the Ford School and research appointments in the Center for Chinese Studies, ICPSR, and the Center for Complex Systems. The former chancellor of UM-Dearborn,…
Faculty by courtesy

Kenneth Lowande

Associate Professor of Political Science; Associate Professor of Public Policy (by courtesy)
Kenneth Lowande studies American political institutions and policymaking.
Faculty by courtesy

Charles R. Shipan

J. Ira and Nicki Harris Professor of Social Sciences
Shipan teaches and conducts research on political institutions and policy. Current projects include whether elections lead politicians to avoid passing good policies and whether institutions constrain policymaking in autocracies. His most recent book is Why Bad Policies Spread (and Good Ones Don’t).
Core faculty

Elisabeth R. Gerber

Jack L. Walker, Jr. Collegiate Professor of Public Policy
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.
Core faculty

Morela Hernandez

Ligia Ramirez de Reynolds Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; Faculty Director, Leadership Initiative
Hernandez is an internationally recognized scholar with deep expertise in applying behavioral science insights to design and improve organizational systems and decision-making practices. She is widely published in top-tier academic journals and popular media outlets, and serves on several editorial boards. At Michigan, Hernandez teaches courses on leadership and serves as faculty director of the Ford School's Leadership Initiative.
Core faculty

Devin Judge-Lord

Assistant professor
Judge-Lord is a political scientist who studies interactions among interest groups, legislators, and bureaucracies. His current work focuses on how public pressure campaigns affect agency rulemaking, especially climate and environmental justice campaigns. His other research projects address legislator behavior and capacity, money in politics, lobbying, and private governance.
Core faculty

Stephanie Leiser

Lecturer in Public Policy
Stephanie Leiser leads the Michigan Local Government Fiscal Health Project at the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP).
Core faculty

Earl Lewis

Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy; Director, Center for Social Solutions
Earl Lewis is the Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy, and the founding director of the U-M Center for Social Solutions. From March 2013-2018, he served as president of The…
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

Megan Tompkins-Stange

Associate Professor of Public Policy
Tompkins-Stange is a scholar of education policy and philanthropy, focusing on the influence of private foundations on the politics of K-12 school reform.
PhD Students

Brittany Vasquez

Brittany Vasquez is a PhD student in Public Policy & Sociology with broad interests in education policy, stratification, and quantitative methods. She is a fellow in Causal Inference in Education Policy Research with the Education Policy Initiative,…
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

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

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

City streets in San José

May 9, 2025
Rick Scott’s (MPA ’12) journey into public service was inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. “I just remember feeling like I wanted to do something,” he recalls of his high school senior year. This feeling led him to an ROTC scholarship,...
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

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

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

Letter from Dean Watkins-Hayes

May 7, 2025
Gerald R. Ford once said, “The global economy requires an unprecedented grasp of diverse viewpoints and cultural traditions.” This sentiment is woven throughout and embedded in who we are and what we do at the Ford...
News

Trump's 100 days in office: Ford School experts available

Apr 29, 2025
In the first 100 days of his second term, President Donald Trump has unleashed a whirlwind of policy shifts that have sent ripples across the globe. The responses to his administration's actions have ranged from applause to skepticism.Ford School...