News | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

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Former Chicago mayor to return to U-M as visiting professor, joining past NYC leader in residence

Jun 13, 2024

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is joining the University of Michigan as a visiting professor, adding more mayoral expertise to the faculty in an effort to encourage and equip students for careers in public service and policy.Lightfoot will join...

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Earl Lewis wins U-M's inaugural President's Medal of Excellence Award

Jun 12, 2024

Professor Earl Lewis was among four recipients of the University of Michigan's inaugural President's Medal of Excellence.The award, presented by President Santa J. Ono, honors individuals for their extraordinary contributions to the mission and...

Earl Lewis delivers remarks at a U-M History Department event

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Christian Davenport named to new Raoul Wallenberg Institute executive committee

Jun 12, 2024

Ford School professor Christian Davenport is among eight faculty and staff leaders from across the University of Michigan to be appointed to its new Raoul Wallenberg Institute executive committee.Jeffrey Veidlinger, the Joseph Brodsky Collegiate...

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Ford School staff honored by peers for being resourceful, thoughtful, and kind

Jun 10, 2024

Congratulations to four recipients of the 2024 Staff Recognition Awards! Kathryn Cardenas from Student & Academic Services, Jackie Riecks from the Office of Development, May Skelton from Career Services, and International Policy Center...

Headshots of Kathryn Cardenas, Jackie Riecks, May Skelton, and Zalma Valencia

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Christiana Verdelus named the inaugural winner of the Ali Family Memorial Writing Prize

Jun 6, 2024

Recent graduate Christiana Verdelus (MPP ‘24) has won the inaugural Ali Family Memorial Writing Prize for her work, “Why Michigan's Certificate of Need Law Must be Repealed to Improve Black Maternal Health.”Verdelus’s paper addresses the problem of...

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Greetings from the Dean - The Briefing, June 2024

Jun 6, 2024

Dear friends,We’ve reached the end of another academic year. At the beginning of May, we honored and celebrated our 186 graduates with great pride at the beautiful Hill Auditorium. Our video of the Commencement Ceremony is posted here. If you missed...

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Youth Policy Lab welcomes Spelman and Morehouse students to 2024 ASPIRE Summer Program

May 24, 2024

Summer 2024 brings another exceptional cohort of undergraduate students from Spelman College and Morehouse College to the University of Michigan’s Applied Social Policy Internship and Research Experience (ASPIRE). Launched in 2023, the eight-week...

2024 ASPIRE Cohort from Spelman College and Morehouse College

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Micah Baum wins the 2024 Peter Eckstein Prize

May 23, 2024

Ford School PhD candidate Micah Baum is the 2024 winner of the Peter Eckstein Prize for Interdisciplinary Research, a competitive student award that celebrates the value of interdisciplinary research in public policy.Baums’s research paper,...

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Chimera promoted to Teaching Professor

May 21, 2024

Ford School writing instructor Beth Chimera will assume the title of “teaching professor,” in recognition of her proficiency, standards, methods, and creativity as a lecturer, as well as her contribution to University service and to inclusive...

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Stange and Weiland promoted to full professors

May 16, 2024

On May 16, the Regents of the University of Michigan approved promotions for Kevin Stange and Christina Weiland. Stange was promoted to professor of public policy, with tenure, and professor of education. Weiland was promoted to professor of...

Headshots of Kevin Stange and Christina Weiland

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Child care workers caught in middle of Michigan’s broken child care system

May 10, 2024

A teacher has a question, notes for families await delivery to classrooms, and a little girl arriving at Blackbird Child Care Center in Harbor Springs needs her rain boots swapped for shoes. Sadie Riley-Flemming responds to it all with a...

Photo of Sadie Riley-Flemming, director of Blackbird Child Care Center in Harbor Springs, greets a girl on April 19, 2024. Photos by Molly Hauxwell Currier for the University of Michigan.

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Bednar named faculty director, UMICH Votes and Democratic Engagement

May 9, 2024

Political scientist Jenna Bednar has been appointed faculty director of UMICH Votes and Democratic Engagement. UMICH Votes is a non-partisan campus coalition whose mission is to improve the accessibility of voting, foster the confidence necessary to...

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A career conversation with National Intelligence Deputy Director Charles Luftig

May 8, 2024

In commemoration of the 20-year anniversary of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA), the Ford School and the Weiser Center for Diplomacy hosted University of Michigan alum Charles Luftig, deputy director of National...

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Ford School researchers to study Michigan’s education governance

May 1, 2024

In partnership with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), a team of researchers from the Ford School will conduct a study into how Michigan’s education governance system can be improved for the benefit of public school students.“An effective...

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Bold Challenges awards $700K for eight research teams

May 1, 2024

Eight interdisciplinary teams from across the University of Michigan have received more than $700,000 from the Bold Challenges’ Accelerate Program to explore innovative research projects that address a wide range of societal challenges ranging from...

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Public policy senior forges multicultural communities

Apr 30, 2024

During his freshman year at UM-Dearborn, Neil Nakkash (BA '24) decided to take a gamble and join a policy research team working on issues impacting his ethnic group. Growing up in nearby Oakland County, he had always found politics interesting, so...

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OVPR awards 3 Ford School staff members for research, leadership

Apr 26, 2024

The Office of the Vice President for Research will recognize three of the Ford School's research center staff—Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija (Education Policy Initiative), Molly Kleinman (Science, Technology and Public Policy program), and Kyle S. Kwaiser...

Headshots of Jasmina Camo, Molly Klienman, and Kyle Kwaiser

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“It’s a matter of racial equity”: Sandoval (MPP ’24) on the challenges facing Detroit’s ‘heir properties’

Apr 23, 2024

Inheriting a home is one of the main ways that middle- and low-income families preserve wealth across generations. Yet in many cases, family-owned properties are passed on without formal legal proceedings to prove ownership, becoming what are...

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Students give second chance sentencing a closer look and influence a statewide debate

Apr 23, 2024

Last fall, five Ford School students in the Strategic Public Policy Consulting class launched a research project on a Michigan criminal justice reform bill called the Second Chance Sentencing Act. At the time, no one imagined the students would...

Students standing in a courtroom after a public briefing

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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...

A group of students at the annual Ford+Munk conference

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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...

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UM study: Detroit’s Black homeowners gained nearly $3B in real estate wealth from 2014-22

Apr 16, 2024

University of Michigan Poverty Solutions study released today shows Detroit’s Black homeowners gained $2.8 billion in home valueStudy based on 9 years or recorded home sales dataNeighborhoods with highest poverty and lowest home values in 2014 saw...

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Javi Piñeiro (MPP/JD’24) participates in Next Milan Forum

Apr 16, 2024

I don't think if you had told me when I was a teenager growing up in a very rural small town in Puerto Rico that one day, still being young and a student, I would be in a position to go to a conference abroad and meet with people from all over the...

Javi Pinero standing with his conference badge at the NEXT Milan Forum in Italy organized by ISPI, Università Bocconi, and the OECD

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Anna Pomper (MPP '24) receives 2024 Spectrum Center award

Apr 16, 2024

Ford School graduate student Anna Verduin Pomper (MPP '24) was among four graduating University of Michigan students and a student organization recognized by the Spectrum Center for their outstanding contributions to campus. Pomper received the...

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Education research in service of others

Apr 11, 2024

2022 Gerald R. Ford Presidential Fellow and Education Policy Initiative (EPI) Research Assistant Katie Hyland (MPP ‘24) is set to graduate this spring following the completion of her Master’s in Public Policy. She takes with her two years of...

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Transformative upgrades to Michigan's longitudinal data system

Apr 11, 2024

A new $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education will improve Michigan’s statewide longitudinal data system, the go-to source for critical education data going to researchers and other stakeholders in Michigan and nationwide. The grant...

Illustration of a bubble test sheet with bubbles filled in and lines connecting them like a circuitboard

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Ford School named #4 public affairs program: #1 for social policy and #2 for policy analysis and for health policy

Apr 9, 2024

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan is recognized again as one of America’s top graduate programs in public affairs, ranked #4 overall in the U.S., according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings.The...

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Students create public participation plan for the City of Chicago

Apr 5, 2024

By its very definition, democracy gives people a voice in the decisions that affect their communities, but the practice of incorporating citizen voices in government decisions can be complicated and challenging.Last semester, three students from the...

Photo of Amy Beck Harris and colleagues at Chicago City Hall

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Amy Beck Harris helps students understand the “how” of international development

Apr 4, 2024

Before becoming an academic, Ford School Lecturer Amy Beck Harris worked in international development and foreign assistance implementation across Latin America with Chemonics International, the largest international development firm that implements...

Smiling students in straw hats in Colombia holding a University of Michigan Block-M flag

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Giving Blueday 2024: a record-setting day of giving

Apr 3, 2024

On March 13, the Ford School community once again raised the bar for single-day donations and gathered over $47,000 in student support, as part of U-M’s annual Giving Blueday celebration.A record-setting 170 donors unlocked a $20,000 challenge gift...

Photo of Student and Academic Services team with block M cookies