social policy

State & Hill

Faculty news, spring 2026

May 7, 2026

Ford School experts are publishing research, sharing their knowledge, and getting recognized.

A series of six headshots of people smiling

Publication

Lantz: Despite technical challenges, Section 1115 Medicaid waivers can improve health-related social outcomes

Mar 27, 2026

New research from demographer Paula Lantz analyzes the challenges and opportunities state policymakers experience when using Section 1115 Medicaid waivers. The study was co-authored by Ford School student Sofia Hiltner and published in Health Affairs...

Policy Matters

Featured Fordie: Elisa Méndez Silva (MPP '27)

Mar 9, 2026

Elisa Méndez Silva (MPP ‘27) shares how supporting World Bank operations in Honduras shaped her approach to policy, why she chose the Ford School, and how she hopes to strengthen public institutions through a career in international development.

Policy Matters

A Fordie’s guide to Michigan life in all seasons

Feb 2, 2026

Megan Connors (MPP '26) gives advice to incoming students on what they should do throughout the year in Michigan

Panoramic photo of a full Michigan Stadium from the Michigan-Ohio State game in 2011

In the Media

Weiland says Michigan's childcare programs can only be part of the solution

Jan 26, 2026 Crain's Detroit Business

Recently, child care programs in Michigan, such as Tri-Share, have seen increasing success, prompting them to be proposed at the federal level. While Tri-Share, among other child care programs have proved effective in Michigan, the Ford School's Chri...

In the Media

Shaefer on Trump administration's use of contingency funds for SNAP

Nov 3, 2025 CBS Detroit

The Ford School's Luke Shaefer spoke with CBS Detroit on the federal government shutdown's impact on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). "There are senior citizens, millions of senior citizens, millions of families with kids who ar...

Photo of Luke Shaefer in the Ford School's Towsley Reading Room

News

Key U.S. hunger report canceled: U-M experts can comment

Sep 24, 2025

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has stopped its annual Household Food Security Report, the government’s primary measure of hunger and food insecurity in the United States. Natasha Pilkauskas comments on the implications of ending this decades-long...

News

Ford School names Mericel Mirabal as 2025 Kohn Scholar

Sep 18, 2025

The Ford School recognizes Mericel Mirabal (MPP ‘27) as the 2025 Kohn Scholar. Kohn Scholars are chosen for their outstanding qualifications and commitment to public service and advancing social policy. The fellowship is a Ford School Rackham Master'...

News

U.S. poverty: Shaefer and Seefeldt discuss labor markets, child tax credits, and racial gaps

Sep 11, 2025

U.S. inflation-adjusted household income increased but poverty rates showed only modest changes last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported , offering a mixed snapshot of how American households fared as the economy returned to pre-coronavirus pandemi...

State & Hill

Improving disability care through Medicaid reform

May 9, 2025

If you ask Vincent Pinti (MPP/JD '27) why he entered the dual degree master’s of public policy and law program at the University of Michigan, he’ll tell you that he didn’t have a choice.

News

What’s in a form? Students reflect on eviction policy & design workshop

Apr 10, 2025

Eviction affects about 1 in 6 households in Michigan each year. Only 2% of tenants are represented by an attorney, placing the burden of understanding court processes and asserting legal rights on individual tenants. To brainstorm ways of tackling th...

Photo of students participating in an eviction policy & design workshop

News

Davenport on Creative Currents discusses class with artist Rick Lowe

Mar 18, 2025

On the U-M Creative Currents podcast, Ford School professor Christian Davenport joined artist Rick Lowe, curator Abigail Winograd, and social scientist Kate Cagney about art as a catalyst for social exploration, change, and collective storytelling. T...

In the Media

Withholding funding is not reasonable - Bagenstos

Feb 4, 2025 Marketplace

Professor at the Ford School and former General Counsel to the Office of Management and Budget, Samuel Bagenstos said the president "withholding certain funding — including for green energy projects and foreign aid" is not supported by "proper reason...

State & Hill

Greater than its sum: an update on the Kohn Collaborative

Dec 17, 2024

Six years ago, Harold and Carol Kohn approached the Ford School with a vision. Their goal was to help build a vibrant research community dedicated to promoting social equity and inclusion. Today, the Kohn Collaborative for Social Policy is poised to ...

News

State program significantly reduces homelessness, utility insecurity, U-M report reveals

Dec 3, 2024 https://news.umich.edu/state-program-significantly-reduces-homelessness-utility…

The pilot of a Michigan program created to help improve health outcomes for pregnant parents and their children shows positive impacts on families, including food and financial security and housing stability, according to a new report from the Univer...

Family holds infant while being interviewed by the research team

In the Media

Herd argues administrative barriers to welfare programs are promoting poverty

Oct 27, 2024 Vox

Vox network recently spoke with the Ford School's Pamela Herd on current barriers in the distribution system of social welfare programs. Herd testified, “We have a huge array of different programs with the primary goal of reducing poverty and increas...

In the Media

Pilkauskas supports expansion of the child tax credit under a Harris presidency

Oct 11, 2024 The Gander

Presidential candidate Vice-President Kamala Harris has plans to expand the child tax credit if granted presidency in the upcoming 2024 election. Discussing her research on the expansion of the child tax credit from 2021, the Ford School's Natasha Pi...

News

Kristin Seefeldt named acting director of Poverty Solutions at U-M

Sep 23, 2024

Kristin Seefeldt has been named acting faculty director of Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan for the 2024-25 academic year while inaugural faculty director Luke Shaefer is on sabbatical. Seefeldt, who has served as associate faculty dir...

News

Shaefer’s Injustice of Place wins the Richard A. Lester Book Award

Sep 10, 2024

Ford School professor Luke Shaefer’s book, The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America (Harper Collins, August 2023) is the recipient of the 2023 Richard A. Lester Book Award at Princeton University. Shaefer, the Hermann and A...

Publication

Disparity dynamics: Geographic impact of social transfer programs on income inequality

Jul 31, 2024

Social transfer programs have significant geographic differences in spending that help to reduce income gaps between rich and poor regions of the United States, according to new University of Michigan research. The study, published in Social Service ...

Map of personal income per capita in US Core-Based Statistical Areas, 2019. Per capita incomes were highest in metropolitan areas on the East and West Coasts and in tourism and natural resource centers in the interior West.

News

Ford School announces new prize for social policy impact with $1 million gift

Jul 25, 2024

With a $1 million gift from Hal and Carol Kohn and the Kohn Charitable Trust, the Ford School will establish the Kohn Collaborative Prize for Social Policy Impact to honor and elevate individuals and organizations that make significant contributions ...

News

“It’s a matter of racial equity”: Sandoval (MPP ’24) on the challenges facing Detroit’s ‘heir properties’

Apr 23, 2024

Inheriting a home is one of the main ways that middle- and low-income families preserve wealth across generations. Yet in many cases, family-owned properties are passed on without formal legal proceedings to prove ownership, becoming what are referre...

News

Guaranteed income for entrepreneurs: U-M researchers to assess impact

Mar 5, 2024

One hundred Ann Arbor entrepreneurs, gig workers and other independent workers with low incomes have received their first two guaranteed income payments of $528 as part of the Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor pilot program. Payments started in Jan...

Seefeldt and Emily Shupp Parker tabling outside for GIG A2

News

DC career trip returns to advance connections between students and alumni

Feb 29, 2024

The DC career exploration trip, a Ford School tradition organized by Career Services, was held this year on February 8th and 9th in person for the first time since 2020. The experience allows graduate and undergraduate students to learn about policy ...

Ford School students, alumni, and friends network in DC

Publication

Michelmore and Pilkauskas on Congressional proposal to expand the child tax credit

Jan 29, 2024

Congress is currently considering a $33 billion measure that would adjust the earning requirements and make it easier for many lower-income families to receive the full child tax credit, an average credit that is about $1,130 higher than in 2022. Fam...

Natasha Pilkauskas and Katherine Michelmore

State & Hill

Piloting guaranteed income in U-M’s backyard

Dec 12, 2023

U-M researchers play role in reimagining social safety net in Ann Arbor and beyond For the nearly three decades Kristin Seefeldt (MPP ’96, PhD ’10) has lived and worked in Ann Arbor, her professional life studying and teaching about poverty issues...

State & Hill

Injustice of place: Learning from history

Dec 12, 2023

A place-based view of the legacy of poverty in the U.S. At first glance, there's not much in common among the spinach fields of Crystal City, Texas; the cotton mills near Greenwood, Mississippi; and the historic salt works in Manchester, Kentucky....

State & Hill

Our new dean, Celeste Watkins-Hayes

Dec 12, 2023

State & Hill sat down with the Ford School’s new dean to reflect on her scholarship, her mentors, and Gerald Ford State & Hill: Tell us about your intellectual journey to leading the Ford School.Celeste Watkins-Hayes: What you see in my leadership st...

Dean Watkins-Hayes and ASPIRE students gathering on the balcony overlooking the Great Hall

State & Hill

Meet Megan Stewart

Dec 12, 2023

Expert on inequality and political violence now directs the Ford School’s International Policy Center As an undergraduate, associate professor Megan Stewart took a class on Middle East politics and became interested in how a political movement, li...

News

Ford School names Brooke Tran as 2023 Kohn Scholar

Sep 21, 2023

The Ford School recognizes Brooke H. Tran (MPP ‘25) as the 2023 Kohn Scholar. Tran joins the 2022 Kohn Scholar, Lizett Aguilar (MPP ‘24) in this honor. Kohn Scholars are chosen for their outstanding qualifications and commitment to public service and...