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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
Former Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, and former Mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkan, joined Barbara McQuade for a policy talk at the Ford School about Governing in times of crisis and the challenges they faced governing throughout the COVID-19...
One of Michigan's largest financial aid programs offers great promise in boosting college affordability as well as the number of college graduates—with room to reach many more who qualify for...
The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for our January 2025 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus.Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise...
Mental health and marriage timing Decades of research document powerful associations between parents’ characteristics and children’s marital behaviors. “Parental mental health strongly shapes or disrupts family life and long-term opportunities for...
Celebrated, Emmy Award-winning TV producer (Queer Eye), bestselling author, and host of the popular podcast Getting Curious, Jonathan Van Ness, who identifies as non-binary, has used their platform to champion a range of social issues close to their...
Before becoming an academic, Ford School Lecturer Amy Beck Harris worked in international development and foreign assistance implementation across Latin America with Chemonics International, the largest international development firm that implements...
For 25 years, Sue Johnson has been a driving force behind successful fundraising efforts at the University of Michigan, first supporting Rackham Graduate School, then the University’s Museum of Art, and the Law School. Since 2016, the Ford School...
David Rivait (MPP ’84) was appointed by Governor Pritzker to the State of Illinois’ eight-member Budgeting for Results Commission. The Commission advises on an annual performance-based budget and provides oversight and guidance for assessments of...
We looked at other countries to get a sense of the range and then compared it to what we had in the state. Then we looked at a number of different ways that it's administered. I think if you’ve seen one single-payer system, you’ve seen one...
“Most likely the perception within the Israel Defence Forces and at the political level within Netanyahu’s war cabinet is that they have the momentum. . . . when one side believes it has the momentum against its adversary, you don’t want to give it...
