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...
Technology writer and podcaster Kara Swisher will join the Ford School for the Fall 2025 semester as a Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in...
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...
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...
The Ford School successfully grew our faculty in 2024, bringing in experts to deepen our focus on early childhood education, health and aging, better government, and criminal justice policy. Additionally, we welcomed distinguished policymakers in...
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is joining the University of Michigan as a visiting professor, adding more mayoral expertise to the faculty in an effort to encourage and equip students for careers in public service and policy.Lightfoot will join...
A prescription for equityAs the first city-wide experiment of its kind, Rx Kids provides cash payments for new parents—and new promise for eradicating early childhood poverty. Flint's high child poverty rates came into focus nearly 10 years ago when...
Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio will join the Ford School faculty for winter 2024 as a Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence. De Blasio will teach a course open to all on “When Policy Met Politics: How Real...
The nonprofit organization Jefferson East Inc. grew out of a grassroots effort in the early 1990s to bring retail development to Detroit's Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood.
The organization is still working today to support residents and...
In an editorial for Education Week, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer urges teachers to move to Michigan, promoting what she calls, "a state with a positive vision for public education." She begins the article citing her time and mission when she...
Detroit Free Press: A unique free program that pairs college students and professionals with Detroit small business owners in need of digital and other skills is getting results. Since the start of the Community Tech Workers program, 135 micro...
Ohio Court of Appeals Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt, who will be returning to the Ford School as a Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence, was saluted by her hometown YWCA as a 2023 Woman of Achievement. Beatty Blunt, the first Black woman to serve...
The FBI does have national security concerns about [TikTok]. Its parent company is controlled by the Chinese government…. It gives them the ability to control the recommendation algorithm, which allows them to manipulate content and—if they want...
As a result of the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the financial turmoil triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, central banks have expanded their policy frameworks to protect financial stability. In a new article published by the European Systemic Risk...
With the guidance and support of the Ford School’s research centers, graduate and undergraduate students are creating a real-life impact in a range of areas by working with external partners. The Ford School is deeply integrated with a wide range of...
The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the winter 2023 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...
A new graduate fellowship has been endowed in honor of former dean Michael S. Barr, thanks to a generous lead gift from Jim Hudak (MPP ’71), chair of the Ford School Committee. The Ford-Rackham Master's Awards (RMA) are one of the Ford School’s and...
Passing the baton
A June gathering with faculty and staff celebrating Michael Barr’s first term as dean—and this photo with then-associate dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes—took on new meaning a couple of weeks later when the U.S. Senate confirmed Barr...
By Miriam Wasserman
At a time when the U.S. economy is facing the highest inflation in 40 years, two former Ford School deans have a vote on the 12-person committee in charge of steering U.S. monetary policy. Michael Barr will have a vote on the...
Abdul El-Sayed, The New Republic: "The evidence is clear. Vaccines have saved and continue to save lives. A new study from the Commonwealth Fund and Yale University (one of DeSantis’s two Ivy League alma maters, by the way) showed that two years...
The University of Michigan has officially launched its invitation to apply to be the next Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. The job description calls for “an experienced and inventive...
Last week, Wayne County tapped Abdul El-Sayed, Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence, to take over as health director in March, and, in the meantime, serve as a project consultant for its Health, Human & Veterans Services Department.
"But...
Abdul El-Sayed, America Dissected: "Today’s episode is about exactly that kind of a set of heroes, a group of Black heroes that revolutionized emergency medical services. Everything from modern CPR to the ways ambulances look and operate. They had...
Beatty Blunt, The Columbus Dispatch: "In the past couple of years, we have seen absolutely the importance of courts and judges. As a Black female judge, I am in a special position to share the things I learned from the bench with the community to...
Abdul El-Sayed, Detroit Metro Times: "Democracy was decidedly on the ballot these midterms. Dozens of election deniers were running for seats involving elections administration. Several won, just not in communities where they can influence important...
Abdul El-Sayed, America Dissected: "If you talk to any pediatrician, there’s one big thing on their mind, RSV. Short for respiratory syncytial virus, RSV is a common virus that can cause serious illness and even death in young children. And that’s...
Abdul El-Sayed, America Dissected: "Today, millions of Americans have yet to receive a first dose of a safe, effective vaccine that has saved millions of lives, all because they’ve been victims of the virality of information. And that leaves them...
Abdul El-Sayed, Detroit Metro Times: "The frontal assault on our democracy is truly shocking — and it ought to be the most important issue facing our country in these elections. Yet, the systematic starvation and misappropriation of our democracy...
New Ford School Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt is a distinguished litigator, legal expert, and public servant. After serving many years as a litigator and judge, in 2018, Judge Beatty Blunt became the first...
Abdul El-Sayed, Detroit Metro Times: "It all comes back to power. After all, Herschel Walker is instrumental to GOP control of the Senate. And without Senate control, Republicans can’t keep passing policies that they themselves are immune from....
