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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 455 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

Ken Roy

U.S. State Department Diplomat in Residence
Ken Roy is a U.S. State Department Diplomat in Residence at the Ford School. He is the new Diplomat in Residence for the North Central Region. He worked as a lawyer and is now on a political officer career track, and he is fluent in Spanish, basic…
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…
News

One Year Later, No End in Sight for Mideast Wars

Nov 24, 2024
“Hamas has got the war they wanted.” That assessment came from Middle East scholar Hussein Ibish, who believes there has been a fundamental shift in the war between Israel and Hamas over the past year: from a more conventional airstrike campaign...
News

Ford School names 2024 Weiser Diplomacy Center Fellows

Oct 7, 2024
The Ford School named four master’s students as this year’s Weiser Diplomacy Center fellows: Schila Labitsch (MPP ‘26), Pedro Eymael (MPP ‘26), Ella Mainwaring Foster (MPP ‘26), and Aaminah Tabassum (MPP ‘26). The Weiser Diplomacy Center (WDC)...
News

Announcing Ken Roy as new Diplomat in Residence

Oct 3, 2024
The Ford School extends a warm welcome to Ken Roy, who will serve as the new Diplomat in Residence (DIR) for the North Central region. He will offer advice and guidance to students interested in exploring careers, internships, or fellowships with...
News

Ali casts doubt on ceasefire prospects in Gaza

May 21, 2024
Ford School professor of practice Javed Ali has been commenting on the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza.Ali told Newsweek that many factors still make the likelihood of a deal "remote." The deal with Saudi Arabia "appears driven by a different set...
News

Bold AI policy proposals awarded at Ford + Munk case competition

Apr 22, 2024
 Fifty-one students engaged on pressing AI-related policy questions during this spring’s Ford+Munk case competition. Held annually, the Ford+Munk conference has students from the Ford School and the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global...
News

Highlights from the Dean's Symposium

Apr 21, 2024
Two days of panels, chats, and keynotes focused on examining and seeking solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face in Michigan, in the United States, and across the globe. More than 400 students, faculty, staff, and friends attended in...
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,...
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...
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...