State & Hill | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
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State & Hill

Soundbites, spring 2023

May 3, 2023
The FBI does have national security concerns about [TikTok]. Its parent company is controlled by the Chinese government…. It gives them the ability to control the recommendation algorithm, which allows them to manipulate content and—if they want...
Headshots of Christopher Wray, Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt, Jelani Cobb, Gretchen Whitmer, and Chris Wallace
State & Hill

A dynamic hub for international policy education

May 3, 2023
To address our most pressing global challenges, we need professionals with the knowledge and skills to analyze complex problems, build policy coalitions, and advocate effectively" John Ciorciari The Ford School's two internationally-focused...
On the map
State & Hill

Molly Spencer: from Invitatory

May 3, 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,...
Poem image
State & Hill

Chang (MPP/MSW '14) builds coalitions, better policy

May 3, 2023
Coalition-building leads to good policy-making By Daniel Rivkin In 2014, Stephanie Chang (MPP/MSW '14) was approached by her community-organizing colleague, then-State Representative, now Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, to run for office. Chang...
Watkins-Hayes, Chang, Staebler
State & Hill

Betsey Stevenson: Thinking like an economist

May 3, 2023
Betsey Stevenson uses the tools of her trade to empower people and improve lives By Daniel Rivkin An early March ice storm in Michigan caused widespread power outages and disruptions for hundreds of thousands of households. Families had to...
Betsey Stevenson
State & Hill

From grounded to global

May 3, 2023
"One positive international experience can flip a switch, change a student's academic and professional trajectory. You never know what that experience might be," says Dan Ellis, assistant director of the International Policy Center (IPC). He and...
Diplomacy Lab
State & Hill

Global Fordies make the school a bigger, better place

May 3, 2023
By Daniel Rivkin Akiho Nagano (MPP '23) and Mayu Ueno (MPP '24) were speaking in a corridor at Weill Hall, sharing thoughts about past jobs, future jobs, and their families. Roaming the halls, you can hear similar conversations, in their case in...
Global Fordies Potluck
State & Hill

The Ford School: On the map

May 3, 2023
Here are just a few of the international learning opportunities that Ford School undergraduate and graduate students have undertaken since 2020—travel courses, research projects, internships, externships, and simulations—all preparing students for...
On the map - story
State & Hill

Catalysts for racial justice

May 3, 2023
Three inaugural Center for Racial Justice visiting fellows—Julian Brave NoiseCat, Makeda Easter, and Atinuke (Tinu) O. Adediran—reflect on the work they've pursued during their year at the Ford School. By Lillian Chen and Rebecca Cohen (MPP...
Picture of CRJ fellows
State & Hill

Quantum leap

May 3, 2023
When City of Flint CFO Rob Widigan looks at his required annual financial reporting to the state of Michigan, he sighs. His department needs to compile the accounts, which are saved as a PDF document, and separately copy certain numbers into at...
Photo of a large metal arch with a sign reading "Flint: Vehicle city" at a gateway to Flint, Michigan
State & Hill

Fauri (MPA '64) invests in his values

May 3, 2023
"What do you most personally want to influence?" That's what David Fauri (MPA '64), a retired professor of social work and policy at Virginia Commonwealth University, asked himself before deciding to make a generous planned gift to the Ford...
David Fauri
State & Hill

Spotlights, fall 2022

Dec 19, 2022
Passing the baton A June gathering with faculty and staff celebrating Michael Barr’s first term as dean—and this photo with then-associate dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes—took on new meaning a couple of weeks later when the U.S. Senate confirmed Barr...
Michael Barr and Celeste Watkins-Hayes
State & Hill

Education policy at the Ford School

Dec 19, 2022
Interdisciplinary, rigorous, and committed to real world impact and to mentoring: the Ford School has one of the strongest education policy programs in the country.  How did we get there? S&H asked the scholar at the front of the class, economist...
Photo of Brian Jacob standing at the Annenberg Auditorium podium, delivering remarks at a public event
State & Hill

Dot to dot

Dec 19, 2022
The Education Policy Initiative connects researchers and policymakers—helping make good use of their one-of-a-kind secure data clearinghouse By Daniel Rivkin A recent research project examined the ties between school funding and crime in...
Illustration of a bubble test sheet with bubbles filled in and lines connecting them like a circuitboard
State & Hill

Letter from Interim Dean Watkins-Hayes

Dec 19, 2022
Greetings from Ann Arbor! It’s been my great honor–and a lot of fun–to serve as interim dean of the Ford School, an outstanding community dedicated to the public good. This edition of State & Hill focuses on education policy—the research,...
Celeste Watkins-Hayes
State & Hill

Diversity, equity, and inclusion highlights

Dec 19, 2022
The University of Michigan is currently in an interim period between its strategic plans for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with the next plan set to launch in early fall 2023. The Ford School community did not pause, however, and is hard...
Photo of DeAndré Calvert addressing a room of attendees at the Ford School reunion in 2019
State & Hill

Interns around the world

Dec 19, 2022
Many internships returned to in-person or hybrid modalities this summer, taking Fordies back around the world to work with nonprofits and NGOs, governments and agencies, and consulting firms and businesses—applying the skills and knowledge they’ve...
Internship collage
State & Hill

Ford-Rackham Master’s Award endowed in Michael Barr’s name

Dec 19, 2022
A new graduate fellowship has been endowed in honor of former dean Michael S. Barr, thanks to a generous lead gift from Jim Hudak (MPP ’71), chair of the Ford School Committee. The Ford-Rackham Master's Awards (RMA) are one of the Ford School’s and...
Photo of Michael Barr speaking to the classes of 2022 from a podium on stage at Elbel Field
State & Hill

National recognition for Niggemeier, summer leadership coaching

Dec 19, 2022
In 2021, after an initial pilot test, the Ford School became the first policy school to offer all Master of Public Policy students the opportunity to work with a certified executive leadership coach during their required summer internship. In...
Representatives from the Sanford School of Public Policy, O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Ford School of Public Policy, and the Harris School of Public Policy present at the 6th annual Voinovich Public Innovation Challenge at the 2022 NASPAA conference.
State & Hill

Meet interim dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes

Dec 19, 2022
Distinguished sociologist Celeste Watkins-Hayes works at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and institutions, with a special focus on urban poverty and race, class, and gender studies. She’s particularly interested in the lived...
Headshot of Celeste Watkins-Hayes
State & Hill

Faculty News, fall 2022

Dec 19, 2022
Jenna Bednar published “The Fractured Superpower: Federalism is Remaking U.S. Democracy and Foreign Policy,” in Foreign Affairs. The Coalition for Networked Information, the Association of Research Libraries, and EDUCAUSE awarded Paul Courant the...
Headshots of Brian Jacob, Paula Lantz, Katherine Michelmore, Jeffrey Morenoff, Susan D. Page, Shobita Parthasarathy, Natasha Pilkauskas, Joy Rohde, Joe Schwarz, and Fabiana Silva
State & Hill

Class Notes, fall 2022

Dec 19, 2022
Ron Geason (MPP ’72) began his career as budget director at Carnegie Mellon with JP Crecine, the first director of IPPS. He received a PhD in 1988 in public administration and finance from The Ohio State University. From 2015–2017 he served with...
Photos of babies Oliver, Caleb, Louis, and Elizabeth
State & Hill

Soundbites, fall 2022

Dec 19, 2022
The results of the Russian aggression—starving people, murdering people—from that perspective, we have to help (people) so that they survive. But the cause, the causes are really more important. The cause is the bad political system in Russia....
Headshots of Walesa, Webster, Crockford, and Welch
State & Hill

The Last Word: Peter Vasher, director of career services

Dec 19, 2022
This fall, after a national search, the Ford School selected Peter Vasher as the school’s director of career services. Vasher has been with the school since 2017 and served as associate director of graduate career services for three years. During...
Headshot of Peter Vasher
State & Hill

Discourse: Fordies in the news, fall 2022

Dec 19, 2022
“The line of students registering to vote on Election Day stretched across the University of Michigan campus, with students waiting for over four hours. There was a palpable sense of excitement and urgency around the election on campus. For many...
Headshots of Isabelle Schindler, Jenna Bednar, Jonathan Hanson, Tom Ivacko, Rusty Hills, and Abdul El-Sayed
State & Hill

Faculty Findings, fall 2022

Dec 19, 2022
Governing for revolution In her 2021 book, new Ford School professor Megan Stewart describes how, during the Chinese Civil war in the 1940s, Chairman Mao and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established a new model for governing as they took up...
Photo of the proceedings of the 6th National Congress of the Communist Party of China