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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
In an effort to spark democratic engagement on college campuses, the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy and the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy co-hosted the Big Ten Democracy Summit in February. More than 150...
As the political polarization in America rises, navigating across differences to find common ground—and policy solutions—has never been more important. This semester, four students—Rebecca Coyne (MPP ‘26), Ella Kinder (BA '25), Breah Marie Willy (BA...
Five faculty-led research projects from across the University of Michigan have received Presidential Awards for Understanding Democracy to enhance understanding of democracy’s operation and promise. The awards are part of the universitywide Year of...
A group of Ford School graduate students were recognized for their research on furthering constructive dialogue as part of the Year of Democracy's three-day symposium to investigate the relationship between information and democracy....
Advances in fields like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and data science are rapidly shaping society and raising significant ethical and policy questions. The dizzying pace of development also highlights the need for academic programs that...
Empowered bureaucrats can make decisions that will lead to better and more efficient service for citizens, according to Dan Honig, author of “Mission Driven Bureaucrats: Empowering People To Help Government Do Better.” In a Policy Talk at the Ford...
The Ford School's Rusty Hills has shone a light on the historic legacy of former President Gerald R. Ford, from the White House to the Ford School. In an opinion piece for the Detroit Free Press, Hills highlights lessons he learned from President...
“Executive orders can't overrule statutes, so that’s a mystery legally,” according to Michigan Law Professor Margo Schlanger. She was addressing the legal and rhetorical attacks the Trump administration has made against birthright citizenship....
"If you take away pictures of women, if you take away pictures of Black heroes, of Asians, of Native Americans, of Latinos, then who's left?" asked Don Moynihan, professor at the Ford School. Moynihan spoke with All Things Considered on a recent...
