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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Ford school professor Mara Ostfeld wrote with coauthors Kamri Hudgins, Erykah Noelle Benson, and Vincent Hutchings, in The Conversation about delays in the release of the Detroit Reparations Task Force report. She explains why it has been difficult...
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...
James McIntire leaves a legacy of policy for the public goodThis year, the Ford School Alumni Board honored James L. McIntire (MPP ’78) with the 2024 Neil Staebler Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes outstanding professional achievement in...
Hilary Doe (MPP '08) says she’s always been a “walking through Michigan commercial,” and she’s got the tattoo to prove it. Doe, the state’s first chief growth officer—and the only one in the country—had the state of Michigan inked on her forearm...
Jennifer Erb-Downward, Director of Housing Stability Programs and Policy Initiatives in the Ford School talked about the importance of housing in relation to other needs. She said in places with longer commutes like Detroit, "Parents are really...
Crime and safety tops the list of priority issues that Detroit residents want to see city officials address going into the November 2024 election, according to a survey conducted by the University of Michigan in partnership with Outlier...
Betsey Stevenson, Ford School professor spoke with Stateside and explained why she thinks banning rentals like AirBnB won't solve the housing crisis. She said, "we really need to get to the root of what is the conflict we have with tourists coming...
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...
Justin Wolfers, Ford School professor, talked with CNN about housing shortages and their impact on markets. He said, “The problem right now is too many people chasing too few houses." To him, it seems apparent that “The solution to that is not to...
A temporary, pandemic-era expansion of the Child Tax Credit improved housing affordability for families with low incomes, according to University of Michigan research.The study by Natasha Pilkauskas and Katherine Michelmore, associate professors of...
Each year, our Ford School community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends gather together in the name of President Ford on or near his birthday (July 14!). Approximately 200 Fordies celebrated in Ann Arbor, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los...
Ford School professor and economist, Betsey Stevenson discussed what she thinks about the impact of Airbnb's and other short term rental and their impact on the Michigan housing market. Stevenson, suggested her own solution to the problem, "If you...
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...
Stacy Dean (’88, MPP’92), admits that the decision to attend the University of Michigan wasn’t the most thought-out process. Coming from a small town in New York, she simply wanted to go somewhere new.“It was the school that was furthest away from...
ANN ARBOR—The need for affordable and accessible housing is an issue that transcends political affiliation—even as it rises in significance to voters—and matters as much to our emotional and mental health as our financial well-being.Two University...
As a teenager, I couldn’t help but notice the challenges my community faced— poverty, lower educational attainment, high crime and violence, and environmental injustices. It made me wonder: why is my community the way it is? And why is it...
A growing number of public policy graduates are opting to work in public sector consulting—public arms of larger firms such as EY or Deloitte, or advisory consulting firms such as Guidehouse, Huron Consulting Group, or Booz Allen. For many years, a...
