NPM | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Megan Tompkins-Stange addresses the influence of private foundations on education policy

Sep 20, 2016

This week, Megan Tompkins-Stange and her research were featured in a variety of programs: Michigan Radio's Stateside program, Prospect magazine, and the Tiny Spark podcast.In each, Tompkins-Stange discusses her new book, Policy Patrons:...

Internship field report, Robert Dickinson @ Haiti School Project, Port au Prince

Sep 13, 2016

Robert Dickinson (BA ’17) is submitting this field report from his summer 2016 internship at Haiti School Project in Port au Prince.Travelling always feels the same to me: the harsh recycled air on my flights; the long walkways and loudspeakers of...

Marketplace Morning Report asks, "Are powerful philanthropic groups good for education?"

Aug 26, 2016

Amy Scott interviews Megan Tompkins-Stange, author of Policy Patrons, for the Marketplace Morning Report segment, “Are powerful philanthropic groups good for education?”In the book, Tompkins-Stange takes a deep dive into the philosophy and practice...

Policy Patrons in WaPo, "Obama's ed department and Gates fdn were closer than you thought"

Aug 25, 2016

Policy Patrons, a recently published book by Megan Tompkins-Stange, is the focus of the Washington Post article, “Obama’s education department and Gates foundation were closer than you thought.”“Policy Patrons looks at the effect of the...

Collins to serve as an evaluating judge for MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition

Aug 24, 2016

Susan M. Collins will serve as an evaluating judge for a new competition that will award a $100 million grant to a single proposal designed to help solve a critical problem affecting people, places, or the planet. The John D. and Catherine T....

News

Internship field report, Michelle Rubin (MPP/MUP '17) @ Global Detroit, Michigan

Aug 1, 2016

Michelle Rubin (MPP '17) submits this field report from her summer 2016 internship at Global Detroit. I am just wrapping up and reflecting on my ten-week summer internship with Global Detroit. Global Detroit is a non-profit that aims to...

Photos and lessons from 2016 Graduate Horizons conference for Native American students

Jul 29, 2016

The Ford School and University of Michigan recently hosted the 10th biennial Graduate Horizons conference for American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian students.View the photo album here.The four-day conference, held July 9 - 12 on the...

Governing or fundraising: What’s the duty of elected officials? Schwarz on Stateside

Jul 27, 2016

Dr. John J.H. (Joe) Schwarz spoke with Stateside, a Michigan Radio program, about “Governing or fundraising: What’s the duty of elected officials?”Schwarz, a former U.S. congressman (R-MI) and longtime policymaker and political actor, is a lecturer...

Tompkins-Stange in Inside Higher Ed, “how foundations seek to shape public policy”

Jul 20, 2016

Megan Tompkins-Stange spoke with Inside Higher Education about her new book, Policy Patrons (Harvard Education Press 2016), which explores how large foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are working to shape educational...

New undergrad politics, policy course offers opportunities to work with survey research data

Jun 28, 2016

The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) is offering a new undergraduate course for students looking for opportunities to work with survey research...

Tompkins-Stange challenges philanthropic assumptions as guest blogger for Education Week

May 24, 2016

This week, Megan Tompkins-Stange is taking over Education Week’s “Rick Hess Straight Up” blog.Today’s post by Tompkins-Stange, “Silver bullets and solutionism in education philanthropy,” looks at the dramatic rise of outcome-oriented philanthropy in...

State & Hill

IPAers, IPPSters, and Fordies: Catch up with fellow alums via spring 2016 "Class Notes"

May 4, 2016

Peter F. Lydens (MPA ’58) provides pro bono management consulting services to the city of Mount Airy, NC. He was Mount Airy’s first city manager (1961–63), and retired there in 2007. Frank Spence (MPA ’60) was appointed planning commissioner for...

Photo of Andrew Bracken and Jimmy Schneidewind

The dawn of public policy, 45th anniversary of first MPPs (continued from State & Hill)

Mar 31, 2016

The protests started in earnest in the spring of 1965. Operation “Rolling Thunder,” spearheaded by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, commenced on March 2, with massive and near-continuous air strikes of Vietnam. The first U.S. combat troops were...

Students team up with Red Cross to distribute water, filters, and information in Flint

Feb 15, 2016

On Saturday February 6, nineteen Ford School MPPs volunteered with the Flint Red Cross to help with water delivery and outreach efforts in the wake of Flint’s water crisis. Students went door-to-door delivering water filters and cases of water and...

HuffPost says Shaefer’s work on extreme domestic poverty inspired $2 billion federal proposal

Jan 13, 2016

The Obama administration has announced plans for a $2 billion initiative to test new approaches to fight poverty in the U.S., citing Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin’s recently published book about Americans living on $2 a day.White House officials say...

News

Massive policy simulation explores regional cooperation, economic development, green energy

Jan 5, 2016

It’s hardly uncommon for University of Michigan faculty to invite in an outside expert or two to share their perspectives with students in a course. Still, it’s safe to say that Elisabeth Gerber, the Jack L. Walker Professor of Public Policy, has...

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Alum Steve Tobocman of Global Detroit, disrupting urban poverty, one new American at a time

Dec 4, 2015

Steve Tobocman (MPP/JD '97) is the director of Global Detroit, a non-profit that seeks to revitalize Michigan’s economy by making the region more attractive and welcoming to immigrants, international students, businesses, and investors. He speaks...

State & Hill

In the mayor's office and after: Serving, staying, and making a home in Detroit

Nov 26, 2015

Serving, staying, and making a home in the City of Detroit Jennifer Niggemeier was surprised when she attended the fifth annual Worldwide Ford School Spirit Day gathering in Detroit this summer. “When we first did a Detroit event in 2011, there...

State & Hill

Next-gen Detroit Area Study, informing policy in the greater Detroit area

Nov 25, 2015

Building a data infrastructure to inform policy in the greater Detroit area Starting in 1951 and running for more than 50 years, U-M’s annual Detroit Area Study (DAS) helped social scientists better understand the attitudes, views, and lives of...

Ford School alum to publish plant-able coloring book, highlighting water security

Nov 20, 2015

Ford School alum Kathryn Curtis (MPA ’15), recently spent 12 months in Brazil as a Boren Fellow. In the process, she learned about water scarcity and security concerns, and has launched an indiegogo crowd-funding campaign for a plant-able coloring...

U Record spotlights Luke Shaefer, “Associate professor studies extreme poverty in America”

Nov 11, 2015

When living in extreme poverty, people make use of whatever assets they have as a means of survival, whether it means selling plasma, junk yard scrapping, food stamps or sex just to get by."It's both depressing and uplifting," Luke Shaefer says of...

Internship field report, Luis de la Cruz @ Facebook's data center site selection team

Aug 10, 2015

When I graduated college, I decided to start my own consulting practice because I could not find an organization that carried out a mission that I believed in or identified with. Partnering with public and non-profit organizations, I worked to help...

News

Internship field report, Grace Evans @ Detroit's Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Policy, Planning, and Strategy

Jul 30, 2015

Second year MPP candidate Grace Evans is spending her summer in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Policy, Planning, and Strategy in the City of Detroit. This new office was created by Mayor Mike Duggan in late 2014 as an effort to raise...

Internship field report, Lora Cirhigiri @ Imaflora, Sao Paolo, Brazil

Jul 20, 2015

After nine hours of driving down the Trans Amazonia highway, we reached our first stretch of paved road at the town of Apuí. This small town in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest was our destination and point of research for the next...

News

Internship field report, Sandy Mervak from the National Conference of State Legislatures

Jul 7, 2015

That old trope about states serving as "laboratories of democracy" has become much more real for me this summer. I am working as a research intern in the energy program at the National Conference of State Legislatures—a national, bipartisan NGO that...

Improving health in developing countries, Erin Zaikis’ (BA ’10) social enterprise

Feb 24, 2015

By Mandira BanerjeeCleaning upAs Erin Zaikis lay sick with dengue fever in a Thailand hospital in 2013, she had an epiphany. She wanted to dedicate her life to helping others.Confined to her hospital bed with little to do, she ran through images of...

Ford Case Competition winners present to East Lansing City Council

Feb 20, 2015

At the East Lansing City Council’s February 17 meeting, five first year Ford School masters students, winners of the inaugural Ford Case Competition, presented to the council their proposal to resolve the city’s downtown parking concerns. The city,...

State & Hill

Next century teaching: Heated debates, hard decisions, and hands-on philanthropy

Dec 9, 2014

By Miriam Wasserman Months after the semester ended, many of the students in Megan Tompkins-Stange’s undergraduate philanthropy course still feel connected to the topic, visit the class Facebook page, and attend office hours. Their sustained...

Next century teaching: Heated debates, hard decisions, and hands-on philanthropy

State & Hill

The Last Word

Dec 8, 2014

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?...

How foundation-funded 'advocacy research' makes its way into policy proposals

Nov 12, 2014

“Despite the centrality of high-profile funders in the production of advocacy research, scholars have not closely examined their influence,” write Megan Tompkins-Stange and Sarah Reckhow (MSU) in the proposal for their research project, “Financing...