Better Government Lab | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Departments and Research Centers

Better Government Lab

The Better Government Lab – based at both Georgetown University and the University of Michigan – focuses on how to improve the delivery of public services. This often involves using new digital innovations.

Content type
Showing 1 - 30 of 87 results
Core faculty

Pamela Herd

Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy
Pamela Herd is the Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy and faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research Population Studies Center. Her research focuses on inequality and how it intersects with health, aging, and policy. She is als...
Pam Herd
Core faculty

Don Moynihan

J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy
[email protected]
Donald Moynihan is the Ford School's J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy. Previously he served as Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy Chair of Public Policy and the director of the La Follette School at the U...
Don Moynihan
News

Herd and Moynihan win 2026 Riccucci-O’Leary Award

May 19, 2026
Pam Herd and Donald Moynihan have been recognized with the 2026 Riccucci-O'Leary Award for the best article on diversity in public management, conferred by the Public Management Research Association (PRMA).
Headshots of Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan
In the Media

Moynihan: Trump's foreign policy is "smash and grab, see what works"

Mar 16, 2026 The New York Times
Don Moynihan cites Trump’s "almost childish impetuousness": A through line of Trump’s actions is that they are impulsive, with little consideration of the constraints or consequences. We clearly see this with Iran, where the president has shown littl...
Don Moynihan
News

The effects of pausing SNAP benefits: U-M experts can comment

Oct 27, 2025
EXPERTS ADVISORY University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the impact of a potential halt in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding due to the federal government shutdown. A directive from the U.S. Department of Agriculture h...
Name food-security-1090x681
News

Herd addresses barriers to health benefit access

Oct 27, 2025
Ford School Professor Pamela Herd addressed barriers to families accessing health benefits at a recent conference. Herd, the Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy, was speaking a forum organized by the Tax Policy Center, a collaboration betwe...
Pamela Herd
In the Media

Moynihan on "Out-of-Office" email controversy

Oct 2, 2025 WIRED
“The tone of the language is very antagonistic and partisan in a way we don’t expect from formal messaging from agency leaders. If you had a federal employee who emailed their colleagues blaming president Trump for the shutdown, they’d be pursued for...
Person giving a presentation with a remote in hand, standing in front of a screen displaying a presentation slide.
In the Media

Civil service brain drain will be hard to reverse - Moynihan

Sep 30, 2025 Reuters
Don Moynihan, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, said the biggest impact of this week's exodus will be the brain drain of so many experienced civil servants, a loss of talent he says will be hard to reverse...
Headshot of Don Moynihan
In the Media

Moynihan: higher ed being used as scapegoat for Kirk's death

Sep 16, 2025 Inside Higher Ed
Don Moynihan, a tenured public policy professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor who wrote a Substack article about this conservative phenomenon, told Inside Higher Ed that “using higher education as a scapegoat for Kirk’s tragic assassinat...
Person giving a presentation with a remote in hand, standing in front of a screen displaying a presentation slide.
In the Media

Moynihan: Trump's speech on Kirk's death a "missed opportunity"

Sep 11, 2025 Financial Times
Donald Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, said Trump could have used his speech from the Oval Office to condemn all forms of political violence and emphasise the importance of tolerance as a “cornerstone for democra...
Don Moynihan
News

Trump is driving America toward authoritarianism - Moynihan

Sep 10, 2025
Donald Trump's second presidential term has been marked by what Ford School professor Don Moynihan describes as following a checklist for consolidating power and silencing dissent—both serious threats to democracy. In an opinion for the Detroit News,...
Don Moynihan
Publication

Moynihan on the death of USAID

Aug 6, 2025
In his paper published in Public Administration and Development, Don Moynihan analyzes the unprecedented dismantling of USAID under President Trump’s second administration, orchestrated by Elon Musk.
Person giving a presentation with a remote in hand, standing in front of a screen displaying a presentation slide.
In the Media

Herd comments on Medicaid "benefit cliff"

Jul 23, 2025 NPR
That problem — becoming just successful enough to suddenly lose Medicaid — is common. It's called a benefit cliff, said Pamela Herd, who researches government aid at the University of Michigan. "It just doesn't make any sense that someone gets a doll...
Pamela Herd
News

Potential health impacts of the ‘big beautiful bill’

Jun 17, 2025
As the U.S. Senate debates the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, University of Michigan experts are available to discuss elements of the proposed spending plan that stand to leave a mark on health, health care and public health.
U.S. Capitol Building