The Last Word

For 25 years, Sue Johnson has been a driving force behind successful fundraising efforts at the University of Michigan, first supporting Rackham Graduate School, then the University’s Museum of Art, and the Law School. Since 2016, the Ford School...

Rose Reilly (BA ’24) is the president of Turn Up Turnout, a student-led, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing voter registration and turnout for college students. Her passion was sparked at age 16, when she led a voter registration drive...

For many Fordies, admissions director Beth Soboleski (MPP '89) was the first person they met at Michigan. Beth is retiring this spring after 20 years of recruiting and welcoming new students at the Ford School. State & Hill sat down with her on...

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...

As part of the Practical Community Learning Project (PCLP), a semester-long independent policy-based community project in Detroit, community engagement manager DeAndré J. Calvert and a team of Ford School students worked on digital access with the...

With COVID-19 restrictions being lifted across the country, what does the "other side" of the pandemic look like? Many realize that everything will not revert to pre-pandemic "normal." Betsey Stevenson, professor of public policy and economics, has...

This spring, the Ford School finishes the implementation of our 5-year strategic plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), launched in 2016 in concert with a University-wide set of coordinated DEI plans. This summer we will develop strategic...

Paula Lantz, associate dean for academic affairs and the James B. Hudak Professor of Health Policy, is a social epidemiologist. She talks with S&H about COVID, inequality, and what’s to come. State & Hill: We are 10 months into the global...

Goldenberg's “Turn Up Turnout” efforts have spread from the Ann Arbor campus to Dearborn and Flint, to all Big 10 schools through the Big Ten Voting Challenge, and to 25 other institutions in the state through the annual Michigan Student Voting...

The Ford School recently announced a new way for alumni and others to give back: the Ford School Fund for Student Support. As we aim for more alumni donors over the next year—with gifts of any size—State & Hill caught up with Naomi Goldberg (MPP...

A key Ford School priority is to engage more and better with external organizations and communities, leveraging Ford’s capacity and expertise, interdisciplinary approaches, and ability to assemble a network of policy-engaged university faculty....

Former U.S. Congressman Dr. John J.H. "Joe" Schwarz is celebrating his 10th year of teaching at the Ford School as he scales back to a slightly less frenetic pace. In this column, he reflects on partisan politics, local governance, and his time at...

Beth Chimera, David Morse, and Alex Ralph—the Ford School’s writing instructors—chat about the skills they teach, why those skills matter for aspiring public servants, and what they love about the work. S&H: What kinds of writing projects do...

A research manager at the Ford School’s Education Policy Initiative (EPI), Mahima S. Mahadevan (MPP ‘11) is leading the implementation of a major study on Michigan’s charter schools. Preliminary findings will be released in early 2016. Mahima has...

Republicans support a carbon tax? Yes they do. Barry Rabe, director of the Ford School’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, explains. ​ S&H: You'll spend your sabbatical year working on a book about carbon pricing. Why that...

We kicked off our Next Century Campaign as part of our Centennial Reunion celebrations. Here, two members of our development team, Dan Ginis and Sonia Gill, talk about our alumni campaign. S&H: Set the stage: what are our alumni campaign goals?...

Jennifer Niggemeier, director of graduate career services and alumni relations, and Elisabeth Johnston, alumni relations manager, sit down with State & Hill to preview The Centennial Reunion (October 31 – November 1, 2014). S&H: A centennial...