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...
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...
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,...
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...
You can’t get good government without good oversight.” That quote from U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) is a touchstone for the work of Ben Eikey (MPP ’19) and that of the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy, where he serves as a manager for the...
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...
Over the past 32 years, Jennifer Niggemeier has been a supportive career coach and enthusiastic cheerleader for thousands of public policy students. Her influence has extended beyond individual mentorship to shape and advance programs and...
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...
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....
Susan M. Collins, former dean of the Ford School and now president & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, made a welcome return to Weill Hall in November for a public event and lunch with students. During her visit, she shared insights into...
Have you ever disassembled a broken coffee maker or a sink, convinced you could fix it, only to end up with a jumble of parts? As a child, Terry Nguyen’s (BA ’25) curiosity about how things worked led to a broken fan, a pile of parts, and no idea...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Professor Elisabeth Gerber is the inaugural faculty director of the Ford School’s Online Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program, which will launch in January 2026. Read what she has to say about the new...
Ford School professor Betsey Stevenson has been widely sought for her insights, and concerns, about the implications of the Trump administration's proposed tariffs. Here are some of the notes Stevenson has shared with news outlets over the past few...
As the stock market faces shocks and falls from Trump's tariff policy, Marketplace has turned to the Ford School's Betsey Stevenson for an explanation of what this could mean for American workers. Stevenson told the network, “Layoffs are not the...
Reflecting on recent stock market instability, the Ford School's Betsey Stevenson told Bloomberg in an interview that, "I do think that he [Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve chairman] is going to reassure financial markets that we have a strong and...
The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan has once again been recognized as one of the nation’s leading graduate programs in public affairs, securing the #3 spot overall in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings....
"What we’re seeing is not targeted tariffs that are trying to help support certain aspects of American industry. This is across the board tariffs," said Bestsey Stevenson, professor at the Ford School. In a debate with an ex-campaign aide for...
Bloomberg Network spoke with the Ford School's Betsey Stevenson in pursuit of an estimate for what the Fed will do in response to Trump's recently implemented tariff policies. Stevenson stated, "There is clearly an inflation risk, and we know that...
The Ford School's Betsey Stevenson recently spoke with Bloomberg about the outlook for the U.S. labor market. Following a strong positive trend over the past few months, the labor market is now anticipated to soften with more people expected to face...
Betsey Stevenson, Ford School professor says It's really hard to compare restaurants of today to those of the past. This is part of why they are appearing to be more productive since the beginning of the pandemic. She says, with takeout, consumers...
Following President Trump's recently imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the Ford School's Betsey Stevenson spoke with Yahoo! Finance to discuss her view on the policy. Stevenson argued, "Not trading with your neighbors is not a recipe for higher...
As the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, pushes for cutting government spending from GDP calculations, alarms have been raised for the Ford School's Betsey Stevenson. Stevenson told Planet Money in a discussion about the GDP and government work...
