Departments and Research Centers

Writing Center

The Ford School believes the cultivation of sound writing skills to be an essential component of a public policy education. Writing Center instructors are available to meet with Ford School students individually about their writing on an appointment basis.

Content type
Showing 1 - 11 of 11 results
Core faculty

Beth Chimera

Writing Instructor
Beth Chimera is a writing instructor at the Ford School. In addition to offering individual writing-center tutorial hours to graduate and undergraduate students, she teaches the "Introduction to Policy Writing" first-year graduate course and the…
Headshot of Beth Chimera
Core faculty

Alex L. Ralph

Writing Instructor & Teaching Professor
Alex Ralph is a teaching professor and writing instructor at the Ford School, where he teaches expository writing and courses on storytelling through public policy. Prior to the Ford School, he taught for over a decade in the Sweetland Center for…
Alex Ralph
Core faculty

Molly Spencer

Writing Instructor
Molly Spencer is a writing instructor, the author of two poetry collections, If the House (U. of Wisc. Press) and Hinge (SIU Press), and many essays and book reviews. Prior to her writing career, she worked in public sector project management and legislative relations. She holds degrees in economics, public policy, and writing.
Headshot of Molly Spencer in the Ford School's Towsley Reading Room
News

Writing Center's Spencer wins poetry prize

Feb 9, 2023
Ford School writing instructor Molly Spencer’s poetry collection, Invitatory, was selected as a 2022 New Measure Poetry Prize Winner. It is Spencer ‘s third collection, joining If the House (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019) and Hinge (SIU Press,...
Molly Spencer
In the Media

Ralph reports on local leaders' theory of change in Cincinnati

Aug 23, 2022 Soapbox Cincinnati
Writing instructor Alex Ralph spoke to four nonprofit leaders in Cincinnati "to understand what drew them to their work and how, obstacles and all, they try to implement their theory of change." "These four leaders form a kind of Greek chorus,"...
Alex Ralph
State & Hill

Even so, the first bird

May 22, 2020
By Molly Spencer, writing instructor at the Ford School In the west, etched and bony light of moonset. East, warm breath of sun              fleshing the sky. Nothing will ever be as legible as these hills, still black with their faith...
A single bird flies in front of a gray sky

Writing Center

Year after year, our alumni confirm that policy writing is one of the most essential skills that they developed at the Ford School. It makes sense: no matter how much you know about a given policy problem, it does neither your colleagues nor your...