Health

News

Announcing winter 2023 Ford School events

Jan 11, 2023

The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the winter 2023 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise...

Headshots of Peter Meijer, Jelani Cobb, Jeh Johnson, Andy Levin, and Angela Harrelson

News

EPI examines education impacts of the Flint Water Crisis

Dec 4, 2022

Eight years ago, the Flint water crisis captured national attention when the city’s tap water was shown to be contaminated with lead. Since then, researchers have been rigorously studying this crisis and measuring the effects of this lead exposure...

Photo of the Flint Water Plant water tower in Flint, Michigan

Publication

Lantz analyzes direct democracy gains regarding abortion access

Nov 23, 2022

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down 50 years of abortion access by overturning Roe v. Wade in its June 2022 Dobbs decision, guaranteeing those rights fell back to individual states. Access battles will continue for years in state legislatures,...

News

Has India's new federal abortion law made it a safer place for women?

Nov 2, 2022

India's top court upheld a woman's right to an abortion up to 24 weeks into pregnancy, regardless of marital status, a widely hailed decision by women's rights activists. The right to abortion has proved contentious globally after the U.S....

Publication

Are sanitary pads a panacea for impoverished women?

Sep 21, 2022

In an era when the Indian government has prioritized women's menstrual health and movies like Netflix's "Period. End of Sentence" are garnering worldwide attention, the distribution of disposable sanitary pads to women in India's rural areas has...

News

Municipal governance, economic inclusion, and environmental action among the topics covered at Policy Pitch Competition

Sep 14, 2022

“Here's a truth that bears repeating, ‘Budgets are moral documents.'” So began the presentation of Alex Perez-Garcia (MPP, MBA ‘24) to the 5th annual Ford School Policy Pitch Competition, as she described her summer internship in the Office of...

Photo of students and judges at the 2022 Policy Pitch Competition

In the Media

Parthasarathy comments on new ARPA-H director

Sep 13, 2022 Nature

President Joe Biden recently named Renee Wegrzyn as the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a new agency tasked with finding innovative solutions to biomedical problems. Nature asked Shobita...

Professor Shobita Parthasarathy leads a discussion in the Betty Ford Classroom

News

New study explores the negative effects of housing instability on mental health

Aug 31, 2022

The Great Recession may have affected Americans’ well-being in ways previously not well understood. A new study has found that people who experienced housing instability as a result of the economic downturn during the 2007-09 recession were...

News

Ford School events for fall 2022 explore racial justice, international affairs, the state of democracy and more

Aug 30, 2022

The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the fall 2022 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus. We are hosting distinguished policymakers, scholars,...

Ambassador Susan Rice and Michael Barr lead an event at the Ford School

In the Media

"A new emergency number is required in the post-Roe world" - Kleiman and Lopez

Jul 27, 2022 Michigan Advance

Legal confusion in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade is engendering fear in women who may have miscarriages, Molly Kleinman, managing director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, and William Lopez, affiliate...

Photo of the Supreme Court of the United States building

Publication

Ayanian: Michigan provides lessons for Medicaid expansion

Jul 24, 2022

More than a decade after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, states continue to wrestle with the implementation of one of its primary provisions: the expansion of state Medicaid. Since passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, 38...

News

Lantz and Udow-Phillips on the potential effects of the Roe decision

Jul 19, 2022

The progress that has been made in Michigan's child welfare system could be put at risk by a ban on abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's Roe decision. The effects "could add thousands more children to the system in the coming years and...

Marianne Udow-Phillips and Paula Lantz headshots

News

Event advisory: What comes after Roe v. Wade? Michigan experts to discuss law, policy, health and economics

Jun 1, 2022

Date 2-3 p.m. Wednesday, June 8, 2022 Event "What comes after Roe? Michigan Experts Discuss Law, Policy, Health and Economics" Details The U-M Center for the Education of Women+, Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) and...

In the Media

Supreme Court leaked draft abortion ruling animates pro-choice advocates - Hall

May 17, 2022 USA Today

The recent leaked draft Supreme Court opinion which would eliminate the Constitutional right to abortion as settled in Roe v. Wade has energized both sides of the debate. A USA Today article that examines the energy of the advocates—as determined by...

News

Lantz comments on U.S. Supreme Court leaked abortion draft decision

May 4, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged a leaked draft opinion on Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 court decision that granted federal protection of abortion rights. Ford School professor Paula Lantz, who studies the role of public policy in improving...

In the Media

Schwarz criticizes VA medical facility closing decision

May 1, 2022 Detroit News

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning a phased closing of a VA medical facility which specializes in inpatient and residential mental health treatment in Kalamazoo. In an article in the Detroit News, Joe Schwarz, lecturer in public...

News

U-M virtual series to explore racialized health, economic disparities stemming from COVID-19

Mar 29, 2022

The University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy is kicking off a virtual event series this week with a discussion about the local impact of safety nets on communities of color during the COVID-19 pandemic. Panelists at Friday's event,...

Lightly styled graphic with text that says "COVID-19 reflections: A series on race, health, and economic justice"

Publication

1 in 5 older Americans experience food insufficiency, according to U-M study

Mar 29, 2022

More than 20% of older adults in the United States will experience food insufficiency at some point in their 60s and 70s, according to a University of Michigan study. The study, led by U-M researcher Helen Levy, examined the probability that...

Photo of a nearly empty fridge, with only an apple inside

News

Detroit parents less likely to vaccinate themselves than non-parents, leads to low youth vaccination rates

Mar 9, 2022

Just under half (49%) of Detroit parents and guardians of children under 18 reported at the end of 2021 that they had been vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to 75% of adults who do not live with children. These relatively low vaccination...

A nurse administers the COVID-19 vaccine to a teacher in Iowa (Credit: Phil Roeder / CC BY)

Publication

YPL study calls for mental health training and support of DPSCD staff

Mar 7, 2022

Schools are a promising setting for mental health services – they meet students where they are, surrounded by adults that they trust. Yet more research is needed to determine the most effective way to deliver those services within schools. In a...

Photo of a teacher and three young elementary school students around a classroom table

News

Ford School faculty participate in campus-wide Global Vaccine Equity Ideas Lab

Mar 2, 2022

Researchers from 13 units across the University of Michigan, including the Ford School and entities from all three campuses, gathered for three days of learning and collaboration to develop innovative approaches that address vaccine equity in low-...

Photo of Shobita Parthasarathy facing John Ayanian, both standing in front of posters with writing and post-it notes

News

Poverty Solutions study: Homeless teens face significant health risks, lack access to shelter

Feb 23, 2022

High school-aged youth who are homeless report higher rates of attempted suicide, prescription drug misuse, pregnancy and being forced to have sex. Transgender youth are especially at risk of experiencing homelessness and being estranged from a...

News

International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Impacting society through technology and innovation research

Feb 11, 2022

Ford School professor Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, shares her thoughts on International Day of Women and Girls in Science. In an episode of the Michigan Minds podcast, produced by...

Flat-style illustration of three women scientists in a laboratory

News

Application deadline nears for inaugural racial justice reading circles

Feb 7, 2022

In an effort to expand the ways in which the university community approaches discussion of racial equity, the Center for Racial Justice has established two reading circles for the winter 2022 term. The reading circles are open to graduate students,...

Publication

Pathasarathy calls for systemic change in U.S. innovation policy to promote equity and access

Jan 29, 2022

Ford School professor Shobita Parthasarathy is calling for a change in innovation policy to center “equity as a public value” as the scientific community ponders “the next 75 years of science policy.” In her essay Innovation as a Force for Equity,...

In the Media

El-Sayed hosts Parthasarathy on 'America Dissected'

Jan 12, 2022 America Dissected

How are issues of equity addressed in health care innovation and in particular the patent process? Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, addressed the question on...

Alumni spotlight

Stephanie Sandoval-Pistorius focuses on people-centered medical research

Jan 10, 2022

Stephanie Sandoval-Pistorius is pursuing her PhD in neuroscience at Michigan Medicine, studying the molecular underpinnings of Parkinson’s disease. She will go on to UCSF for her postdoctoral training, where she will investigate pathological brain...

Publication

Axinn and colleagues examine COVID-19 behaviors in Nepal

Jan 5, 2022

Examining the worries and behaviors of families in Nepal, Ford School courtesy professor William Axinn and colleagues from the Institute of Social Research and its Program in Society, Population, and Environment were able to tap in to an ongoing...

News

2021: A year of public policy

Dec 16, 2021

The Ford School of Public Policy is a top-ranked public policy school dedicated to preparing diverse leaders to take on society’s most pressing challenges and make transformational discoveries through cutting-edge research. Experts from the Ford...

News

Parthasarathy calls for people-centric health innovation

Dec 13, 2021

Government investment and encouragement of innovation needs to expand its scope to consider the social and economic effects on marginalized groups. In a paper published by The Next System Project, Ford School public policy professor Shobita...