Departments and Research Centers

Weiser Diplomacy Center

The Weiser Diplomacy Center serves as a hub for engagement with the foreign policy community, bringing a diverse cadre of seasoned diplomats and foreign policy experts to campus and creating new opportunities for students and faculty.

Showing 1 - 30 of 429 results
Visiting faculty

Stephen E. Biegun

Weiser International Policymaker in Residence, Weiser Diplomacy Center
Stephen E. Biegun is the Weiser International Policymaker in Residence with the Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He has more than three decades of international affairs experience in…
Visiting faculty

Louis Fintor

U.S. State Department Diplomat in Residence
Joining the Foreign Service in 2002, Fintor, a UM alumni and Detroit native, served as U.S. Embassy spokesperson in the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe. As Diplomat in Residence (DIR), Fintor provides information on State Department opportunities…
Visiting faculty

Mark Pekala

Visiting Policy Practitioner, Weiser Diplomacy Center
Ambassador Mark Pekala (BA Political Science '81) has served as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in Paris, DCM in Tallinn, Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, and Senior Director for…
Visiting faculty

Daniel Shields

Visiting Policy Practitioner, Weiser Diplomacy Center
Ambassador (Ret.) Daniel Shields is a visiting policy practitioner at the Ford School's Weiser Diplomacy Center. He consults, teaches courses and conducts simulations relating to diplomacy and U.S.-Asia relations. From 2015-18, while on detail from…
Visiting faculty

Kseniya Yurtayeva

Visiting Scholar, Weiser Diplomacy Center
Kseniya Yurtayeva a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, with support from the Weiser Diplomacy Center. Her current scientific interests focus on cyberaggression as a method applied in contemporary warfare and on engaging post-truth for…
Core faculty

Melvyn Levitsky

Professor of International Policy and Practice (on leave)
Levitsky serves as senior associate of the school's International Policy Center, and senior advisor to the Weiser Diplomacy Center. During his 35-year career as a U.S. diplomat, Levitsky was ambassador to Brazil from 1994-98 and held such senior positions as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, ambassador to Bulgaria, deputy director of the Voice of America, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights.
Core faculty

Ann Chih Lin

Associate Professor of Public Policy; Director, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
Lin, a political scientist, studies how people experience policy implementation. Her current work examines racial and ethnic difference in the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic; bias reduction against Muslims; national security scapegoating of immigrant groups; conservatism among immigrants; and subnational labor migration policy.
Core faculty

Susan D. Page

Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Professor from Practice at the University of Michigan's Law School. Director; Weiser Diplomacy Center
Page applies her vast foreign policy experience to the Weiser Diplomacy Center. She has served the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations in senior roles for decades, across East, Central, and Southern Africa, and in Haiti and Nepal. Page was the first U.S. ambassador to the Republic of South Sudan and served as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations in Haiti.
Staff

Nayab Ali

Assistant Program Manager
Nayab brings hands-on policy and research experience from her previous roles at The Brookings Institution and the Center for American Progress. She completed her undergraduate studies at Pitzer College in California. She holds a diploma in Politics,…
Staff

Zuzana Selcova Wiseley

Senior Assistant to the Dean
Zuzana Selcova Wiseley is the Senior Assistant to the Dean. Zuzana has over 20 years of experience in public and private fields of international relations and higher education. She manages WDC's international policy program development, student…
Staff

Zalma Valencia

Administrative Assistant, International Policy Center and Weiser Diplomacy Center
Zalma Valencia is the administrative assistant for the Ford School's International Policy Center and Weiser Diplomacy…
News

Ford school faculty available to weigh in on 2024 elections

Jan 28, 2024
The University of Michigan has published an experts guide to the 2024 elections. Ford School faculty are available to offer insights on relevant issues impacting the elections, including the following:  Economics Betsey Stevenson, professor of...
News

Kamissa Camara: Bridging Worlds and Narratives

Jan 27, 2024
Ford School Professor Kamissa Camara is a World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader" and an Aliko Dangote Fellow. The Forum called on its YGLs as the world's top representatives from government, civil society, and business gathered in Davos,...
State & Hill

Confronting the “Coup Belt” in Africa

Dec 12, 2023
Susan D. Page and Kamissa Camara in discussion An alarming number of countries in Africa have been experiencing coups over the past few years—a total of nine coups in three years—in Sudan, Burkina Faso (twice), Chad, Guinea, Mali (twice), and...
News

Yurtayeva calls for action against Russian cyber attacks

Dec 12, 2023
Russia is using “cyberaggression” as an essential element in its invasion of Ukraine. Cyber attacks have been targeted at critical infrastructure, at Ukrainian government agencies, and have been used to disseminate disinformation about the war...
News

Weiser Diplomacy Center announces new diplomacy fellows

Oct 2, 2023
The Ford School of Public Policy names 2023 Weiser Diplomacy Center (WDC) Fellows with deep interest in pursuing knowledge and practical policy skills related to diplomacy and foreign affairs: Joanna Bascom, Zakaria Bulus, and Elizaveta Dorofeeva....
In the Media

ASEAN nations need support to counter China - Ciorciari

Sep 13, 2023 VOA
John Ciorciari, VOA: John Ciorciari, associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, said in an email to VOA Khmer that ASEAN remains an important forum for diplomacy, but “without consensus on some of the region’s most pressing...
News

Ciorciari comments on India-Middle East rail link announcement

Sep 12, 2023
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Joe Biden and other G20 leaders announced plans to construct a rail and shipping corridor that would link India with the Middle East and Europe.  The Ford School's John Ciorciari, whose research...
In the Media

Ciorciari on China's reaction to US-Japan-South Korea accords

Aug 25, 2023 VOA
John Ciorciari, VOA: John Ciorciari, professor of research and policy engagement at the University of Michigan, said in an email to VOA Khmer that in the short term, China will likely act assertively to show that closer cooperation among South...
News

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life 

Aug 2, 2023
What are the dynamics of inequity in labor markets? How do we determine appropriate categories for people in a multicultural society?  How is the U.S. approach to ethnicity and nationality different from what they are doing in Europe?  These were...
In the Media

Ali on Prigozhin's blunt Ukraine was assessment

Jun 27, 2023 Newsweek
Javed Ali, Newsweek: Javed Ali, an associate professor of practice at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, told Newsweek Monday afternoon that Prigozhin's remarks were the "most blunt and direct repudiation of President Putin's long-standing...
In the Media

Page on scaling of USAID projects

Jun 26, 2023 Devex
Susan D. Page, Devex: Susan Page, who served as U.N. assistant secretary-general to Haiti and in various U.S. government roles, including USAID, said that even when the agency attempts to work with smaller organizations, often the math just doesn’t...
In the Media

Ciorciari: US relationship with India a "counterbalance" to China

Jun 24, 2023 ARD Germany
John Ciorciari, ARD Germany: And this commitment would suit the United States just fine. Because the relationship with the other big "player" in the region, China, has recently gotten worse and worse. John Ciorciari, professor of international...