Writing | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
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Writing

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Core faculty

Beth Chimera

Teaching Professor in Policy Writing
Beth Chimera is a Teaching Professor in Policy Writing at the Ford School. In addition to offering one-on-one writing-center appointments to graduate and undergraduate students, she teaches the graduate-level course "Essential Skills of Policy Writin...
Core faculty

Alex L. Ralph

Writing Instructor & Teaching Professor
Alex Ralph is a teaching professor and writing instructor at the Ford School, where he teaches expository writing and courses on storytelling through public policy. Prior to the Ford School, he taught for over a decade in the Sweetland Center for Wri...
Core faculty

Molly Spencer

Writing Instructor
Molly Spencer is a writing instructor, the author of two poetry collections, If the House (U. of Wisc. Press) and Hinge (SIU Press), and many essays and book reviews. Prior to her writing career, she worked in public sector project management and legislative relations. She holds degrees in economics, public policy, and writing.
State & Hill

Faculty news, fall 2025

Dec 8, 2025
Ford School experts are publishing research, sharing their knowledge, and getting recognized.
News

Jasdeep Kler wins the 2025 Ali Family Memorial Writing Prize

Jun 17, 2025
Jasdeep Kler (MPP ‘26) has won the Ford School’s Ali Family Memorial Writing Prize for his work, “Michigan’s Re-entry Healthcare Waiver is a Start, Now it Needs Real Reform.” The student writing prize recognizes written work that researches, analyzes...
News

Katherine Richard wins the 2025 Peter Eckstein Prize

Jun 17, 2025
Katherine Richard, who holds a PhD in Economics and Public Policy from the University of Michigan, is the 2025 winner of the Peter Eckstein Prize for Interdisciplinary Research. She is recognized for her study on a policy reform that increased penalt...
State & Hill

Faculty news, fall 2024

Dec 17, 2024
William G. Axinn is the interim director of the Ford School’s International Policy Center. He recently published “Early-life risk factors for depression among young adults in the United States general population: Attributable risks and gender differe...
News

Micah Baum wins the 2024 Peter Eckstein Prize

Jul 10, 2024
Ford School PhD candidate Micah Baum is the 2024 winner of the Peter Eckstein Prize for Interdisciplinary Research, a competitive student award that celebrates the value of interdisciplinary research in public policy. Baums’s research paper, "Distrib...
News

Chimera promoted to Teaching Professor

May 21, 2024
Ford School writing instructor Beth Chimera will assume the title of “teaching professor,” in recognition of her proficiency, standards, methods, and creativity as a lecturer, as well as her contribution to University service and to inclusive teachin...
State & Hill

Class notes, spring 2024

Apr 24, 2024
Michael Weinberger (MPA ’66) and his wife of almost 40 years, Karen Weinberger, are moving to Pasadena, CA, after almost 60 years in the Washington, DC area, to be closer to their granddaughter, Luca. Mike McGee (MPP ’83) was named the 2023 Lawyer...
News

Education research in service of others

Apr 11, 2024
2022 Gerald R. Ford Presidential Fellow and Education Policy Initiative (EPI) Research Assistant Katie Hyland (MPP ‘24) is set to graduate this spring following the completion of her Master’s in Public Policy. She takes with her two years of hands-on...
Publication

Injuries of inequality and the promise of safety nets

Mar 7, 2024
What would a comprehensive strategy for reproductive rights and access look like, borrowing from the lessons from the fight against HIV?  This is the question that Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the Ford School...
State & Hill

Faculty news, fall 2023

Dec 12, 2023
Axelrod's adventures Robert Axelrod, William D. Hamilton Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, writes about the difficulties and rewards of interdisciplinary collaboration in his new autobiography, A Passion for Cooperation: Adventures ...
State & Hill

Injustice of place: Learning from history

Dec 12, 2023
A place-based view of the legacy of poverty in the U.S. At first glance, there's not much in common among the spinach fields of Crystal City, Texas; the cotton mills near Greenwood, Mississippi; and the historic salt works in Manchester, Kentucky....
State & Hill

Class notes, fall 2023

Dec 12, 2023
Dr. Robert Goeckel (MPP ’74), distinguished SUNY professor of political science and international relations, retired in January 2023 after teaching for 40 years at SUNY Geneseo. Judy Arnold (MPP ’83), Barb Birnbaum (MPP ’83), Winthrop Cashdol...
State & Hill

Our new dean, Celeste Watkins-Hayes

Dec 12, 2023
State & Hill sat down with the Ford School’s new dean to reflect on her scholarship, her mentors, and Gerald Ford State & Hill: Tell us about your intellectual journey to leading the Ford School.Celeste Watkins-Hayes: What you see in my leadership st...
State & Hill

Faculty Findings, fall 2023

Dec 12, 2023
Transmission impossible? Current research suggests that the U.S. could reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 at a relatively low cost by utilizing currently available technologies, such as electric vehicles and zero-carbon electricit...
State & Hill

Spotlights, fall 2023

Dec 10, 2023
What’s on the barbie? Economists Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson were on the guest list as the White House hosted a State Dinner for Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October. Skills match More than fifty policymakers...