Leadership

Adjunct faculty

Brian Flanagan

Lecturer in Public Policy

Brian Flanagan is founder and principal of the Water's Edge Leadership Institute. He is a trained coach and leadership development entrepreneur. At the University of Michigan, he is a lecturer in public policy and chief evangelist of the Sanger Leadership Center, where he served for almost a decade as the founding managing director.

Staff

Jennifer Niggemeier

Managing Director, Leadership Initiative

Jennifer Niggemeier brings 20+ years of experience in working with current and future policy leaders. Jennifer leads a global team of 20+ executive leadership coaches delivering individual and group coaching to masters students, and designs and…

Leadership coaching

All Ford School master's students have the opportunity to work with a certified executive leadership coach—a growth activity that is typically reserved for senior leaders and executives much further along in their careers. For Master of Public...

Extracurricular programming

The Leadership Initiative hosts workshops and partners with units across campus on a variety of programs that take place outside of the classroom. Students gain insights from faculty, alumni, and each other, and have space to practice communicating...

Ford Students participating in Story Lab

Leadership Initiative

The Ford School's Leadership Initiative develops and offers a growing suite of graduate and undergraduate student leadership courses, coaching, and extracurricular programs that build on and complement the school's excellent, rigorous curriculum....

A student asks a question of Hillary Clinton

Leadership development

Tools to impact and influence others “Leadership doesn’t come by title. You don’t have to be the head of an organization to have an impact. Morela Hernandez, Ligia Ramirez de Reynolds Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and faculty director...

Our leadership

Learn about Ford School faculty and staff leadership.

News

Institute Partnership Creates Pathway to Diverse Academic Leadership

Nov 15, 2023

The Academic Leadership Institute (ALI) Summer Residential Program offered by the University of Michigan (U-M) and Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) equips diverse individuals with the knowledge and management skills required to advance...

academic leadership institute earl lewis

Publication

Axelrod autobiography gives insight to his “Passion for Cooperation”

Nov 10, 2023

Ford School professor emeritus Robert Axelrod has had a 50-year career that has made him what some people have called “one of the most influential social scientists of his generation.” After being recognized by President Kennedy for being a...

News

Raimondo addresses labor market changes

Oct 24, 2023

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo addressed labor market challenges in a conversation with Ford School economics professor Betsey Stevenson. She noted the vast number of people and agencies within the Department of Commerce – nearly 47,000...

News

Weiser Diplomacy Center continues its practical approach to international affairs

Sep 27, 2023

Four current and former army officers stood before a set of maps on a screen in the Betty Ford auditorium, giving background on the on-going diplomatic standoff in Cyprus. The audience consisted of 24 undergraduate and graduate students from the...

News

Simulation software ViewPoint ready for next chapter after licensing agreement with ed tech firm Summit Venture Studio

Sep 13, 2023

In partnership with CAI, Ford School professor Liz Gerber was able to take an idea scribbled on a napkin and turn it into a powerful simulation tool for teachers and students. Following more than 100 simulations involving more than 4,000 users...

News

Watkins-Hayes joins inaugural Center for Academic Innovation advisory council

Sep 12, 2023

Deans group will inform center’s overall strategic focus while associate deans group will focus on impacting student success, equity and learning innovation Two strategic advisory councils made up of University of Michigan deans and associate...

Publication

Dean Watkins-Hayes salutes her mentor, editing the Speechifying compendium

Aug 30, 2023

Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes is honoring one of her great mentors, Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole — noted Black feminist anthropologist, the first Black female president of Spelman College, former director of the Smithsonian Institution's...

Speechifying Book Cover featuring Dr. Cole

News

The Ford School, LSA, and Wallace House Partner for Public Discourse

Aug 25, 2023

On a Monday evening in late November, throngs of University of Michigan students, faculty, staff, and Ann Arbor residents waited expectantly outside the Michigan Theater to attend the premier showing of the film, “She Said.” The movie chronicles...

News

Hanson on Kamala Harris's struggling poll numbers

Jul 25, 2023

A series of articles have highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris’s low polling numbers, “a daunting problem for a running mate as the 2024 presidential campaign gets under way.” FiveThirtyEight’s polling average showed Harris with a 52%...

News

Engaged Learning Student Projects Catalog: Preparing Ford School students for leadership

Jun 29, 2023

During the Winter Term 2023, Ford School students were involved in projects with federal, state, county, city, and township governments, school districts, non-profit organizations, and commissions. They worked with the school’s numerous research...

Weill Hall entrance with "Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy" etched into the glass

News

U-M experts suggest five things we can do to keep our system of government strong

May 18, 2023

In the United States and around the world, the fate of democracy is being challenged. A number of studies have shown that the majority of Americans believe democracy is at risk. At the University of Michigan, faculty and students are participating...

Photo of an American flag backed by a gray sky

News

President Ono salutes the Ford School, Luke Shaefer, in Inauguration address

Mar 8, 2023

As President Santa. J. Ono was inaugurated as the 15th president of the University of Michigan on March 8, he laid out a vision for change and challenge to continue to address the world’s greatest problems. In his address to an audience of students,...

News

Governor Gretchen Whitmer to speak at the University of Michigan, in conversation with CNN Anchor Chris Wallace

Feb 26, 2023

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer will visit the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, March 8, for a special event alongside CNN Anchor Chris Wallace. Beginning at 6:00pm at Rackham Auditorium, the hour-long fireside chat...

News

Ford School welcomes local and state elected officials to boost collaborative work

Feb 16, 2023

Elected officials from local, county, and state government came to the Ford School to hear about the potential for collaborations with their offices and the School’s faculty, research centers, and students. Fifteen members of the Michigan State...

Local Public Officials at the Ford School

News

Axelrod awarded 2022 Boris Mints Institute Prize

Feb 10, 2023

Ford School emeritus professor Robert Axelrod was awarded the 2022 Boris Mints Institute (BMI) Prize. In its citation, the Institute noted his ground-breaking work in applying game theory to conflict resolution. “In his research, which employed...

Publication

Overcoming workplace imposter syndrome

Jan 31, 2023

Many high-achieving employees describe feelings of self-doubt and not being intellectually capable to do their jobs. These feelings can be classified as “imposter syndrome” and it is a persistent issue among career women. A KPMG survey of 750 female...

News

EPI's Weiland and Jacob, SOE's Ball and Duke, make the prestigious 2023 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings

Jan 5, 2023

Education Week has unveiled the annual 2023 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings which rate education scholars based on criteria that determines who has made the largest impact in their field over the previous year. Education Policy...

Headshots of Brian Jacob and Christina Weiland

News

Unique integrated policy exercise to examine the State of the Union

Dec 14, 2022

How does a president decide what to put into the annual State of the Union (SOTU) address? Which priorities should be first? How partisan or bipartisan can it be? How many applause lines could they seek? And would they ever admit that the state of...

Photo of President Ford delivering the State of the Union to a joint session of Congress in 1976

Publication

Hernandez explores the benefits of using ambivalence in decision-making

Dec 6, 2022

The longer decisions take, the more discomfort they cause us. But in a new article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, Ford School professor Morela Hernandez argues that the more we sit in that discomfort or ambivalence, the better. “Being...

News

Ford School professors begin to chart the course of the Inclusive History Project

Nov 17, 2022

Two Ford School professors have joined the Framing and Design Committee of the Inclusive History Project, a project centered on documenting the university’s history with respect to diversity, equity and inclusion. Earl Lewis, the Thomas C. Holt...

Headshots of Earl Lewis and Morela Hernandez

News

FBI Director Christopher Wray to visit the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy

Nov 16, 2022

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray will visit the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy on Friday, December 2 as the 2022 Josh Rosenthal Memorial Speaker. In 2002, the Ford School received a gift...

FBI Director Christopher Wray speaking at podium

News

Ford School names central space in honor of former dean Rebecca M. Blank

Nov 14, 2022

“Becky Blank put the Ford School on the map, literally. We – all of us who learn and teach and work here, and our alumni who are out there making communities better – WE are the house that Becky built.” So began Ford School interim dean Celeste...

Photo of then-dean Becky Blank and former President Gerald R. Ford, taken on the occasion of the naming of the Ford School

News

Former Michigan legislators overwhelmingly favor reforming or abolishing term limits

Nov 1, 2022

As voters in Michigan consider a ballot measure to change the state's legislative term limits, a survey of former legislators shows overwhelming support for reforming or abolishing the limits. The survey, conducted in 2020 and 2021 by Rusty...