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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
Nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. lack access to reliable transportation, making it one of the country's most common forms of material hardship, say University of Michigan...
The Detroit Free Press has recently highlighted Wayne County Executive Warren Evans' plans to combat child poverty through cash aid programs. Evans discussed his hope to bring Rx Kids, the anti-poverty program directed by the Ford School's Luke...
Eviction affects about 1 in 6 households in Michigan each year. Only 2% of tenants are represented by an attorney, placing the burden of understanding court processes and asserting legal rights on individual tenants. To brainstorm ways of tackling...
In a new opinion piece for Bridge Michigan, Luke Shaefer argues that the University of Michigan should not give in to pressure from the Trump Administration so easily....
New research from the University of Michigan points to potential ways to leverage grocery delivery services to improve food access in Detroit, where 32% of residents live a mile or farther from a full-service grocery...
A major policy change in early education in the Philippines led to an unexpected drop in test scores and academic achievement—revealing the challenges that even well-intentioned reforms can have and the importance of wisely investing in the first...
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan promoted a Poverty Solutions study which shows that Detroit homeowners’ home wealth rose by $700M in 2023. At a well-attended news conference in Detroit, Duggan highlighted that Detroit homeowner occupants gained nearly a...
Luke Shaefer, Ford School professor and Director of Poverty Solutions talked with The Chronicle of Philanthropy about his work on Rx Kids as a guide for the NGO GiveDirectly. Working on Rx Kids he says was "a really humbling experience for me...
Luke Shaefer, Ford School professor and directory of Poverty Solutions, talked about the community violence intervention program in Detroit called FORCE (Faithfully Organizing Resources for Community Empowerment) as well as others including...
Following huge success in its first year, the child healthcare support program Rx Kids is set to expand from Flint into Kalamazoo. Luke Shaefer, professor at the Ford School and the program's co-director stated, "We see families reporting that they...
Center for Racial Justice Postdoctoral Fellow Kristina Fullerton Rico explores what she calls the dangerous implications of President Trump's deportation policy in an essay in The Conversation. Citing extensive social science research on U.S....
As federal policymakers consider the future of the U.S. Department of Education, a new interactive data tool from Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan shows the allocation of federal education funds to local school districts – making the...
Rx Kids, the nation’s first-ever citywide cash prescription program for pregnant women and babies, today announced the program’s launch into communities in the Eastern Upper Peninsula (UP). The UP expansion of Rx Kids is made possible by an...
While Kevin Naud was born and raised in Ann Arbor, the Ford School alumnus’ offspring will be born and raised in Detroit.Naud, who graduated with a Master’s of Public Policy degree in 2021, and his wife are expecting their first child and just...
The DC career exploration trip, a long-standing annual tradition organized by the Ford School's Career Services, took place on February 6 and 7. This year’s trip saw over 80 graduate and undergraduate students—the largest group of student...
More than 1,300 babies and families in the city of Flint have received nearly $6 million in cash prescriptions since Rx Kids launched in January 2024. A birthday bash complete with cupcakes, coloring pages, and other birthday fun, was held Jan. 29...
Rx Kids, co-directed by the Ford School's Luke Shaefer, celebrated it one-year anniversary at the end of January. The program has given access to $6M in cash support for over 1,300 Flint families with pregnant mothers and babies in their first years...
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...
Six Ford School alumni have been elected to serve on the Alumni Board by their peers. These engaged alumni bring diverse experience working in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors in higher education, housing policy, health reform, and other...
