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...
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...
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...
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...
Two second year master’s students, Hope Wang (MPP ‘25) and Julia Johnson (MPP ‘25), have been selected from a competitive pool of applicants for the Ford School’s prestigious 2025 Riecker Fellowship. They are spending the winter semester in...
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...
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...
Riecker Fellow Joe Mancina (MPP ’24) said he could not have imagined gleaning the same experience on Capitol Hill through a Zoom screen.“It was great to be in person,” he said. “In this environment on the Hill, things are relatively fast...
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...
NOAA provides authoritative data, tools, products, and services to build a more weather-ready and climate-ready nation. My job is to understand the policy, political, environmental, and social landscape across the U.S. and try to take a holistic...
David de Voursney implements the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Program (CCBHC) to increase the accessibility of comprehensive mental health and substance use disorder services across the United States. Since 2017, he’s worked with...
In October 2023, Anne Coglianese launched Jacksonville’s first ever resilience strategy, which outlines 45 actions and 90 subactions to implement over the next 50...
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...
The DC career exploration trip, a Ford School tradition organized by Career Services, was held this year on February 8th and 9th in person for the first time since 2020. The experience allows graduate and undergraduate students to learn about policy...
Adam Schmidt (MPP ‘11) was an Army officer before getting his master’s in public policy from the Ford School. After the Ford School, he landed a job at the Pentagon where, in addition to his policy work, he found a passion for developing leadership...
The University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) are proud to announce a new partnership to help launch promising students on a path toward careers in public service. Qualified CHCI...
Upon graduating from the Ford School, Lishaun Francis (MPP ‘09) headed to DC to work as a Management and Program Analyst at the United States Department of Education (DoE). Although she felt she was making an impact on public education, working at...
Sandy Su (MPA ‘21) was an experienced non-profit professional working in the humanitarian and development sectors in her home country of Myanmar. With aspirations to work internationally, she needed to expand her resume beyond her localized...
William Selesky (MPA ‘20) was a practicing attorney in state government who wanted to expand his policy skill set and network beyond the legal profession. He now serves as corporate counsel for Amazon.
What do you do for Amazon?
I'm an...
Egle Klekere (MPA, '21) is the founder of her own communications consulting firm in Latvia. She was looking for a program to help deepen her knowledge and gain new energy for her own and her company's performance.
How has your work been...
Tara Lanigan (MPA ‘21) was working for a mobility start-up and wanted to focus more intentionally on transportation or sustainability policy. She was awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) in 2022 and serves as a policy advisor for the...
Inés Llorente (MPA '20) was working for a human rights organization when she realized she wanted to go back to school to focus on immigration policy and refugee integration. She is now the outreach and content manager at the International Rescue...
With a generous commitment from U-M alumna and influential macro-economist Diane Swonk (BA ‘84, MAE ‘85), the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy has established the Diane Swonk Research Fellowship Fund to support doctoral students in the...
Reilly is one of 175 college students recognized for their nonpartisan democratic engagement work in 2022.
Today, the University of Michigan and the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) announced that Ford School junior Rose Reilly (BA ‘24)...
A self-described “good government geek,” James Hiebert (MPP ‘23) recognizes the divide that often exists between local and federal government. So, he jumped at the opportunity to be a Riecker Fellow and to bring his experience in local government to...
