State & Hill fall 2020

Sometimes you have to not just dream about what could be—you get out and push and you pull and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of goodwill in power to act. Former U.S. Represent...

Two new professorships will address structural inequality and social policyBy Rebecca Cohen (MPP ‘09)   "Talent is distributed evenly throughout our society, but opportunity most certainly is not." Harold and Carol Kohn heard University of Michigan P...

Ford School Currents: Perspectives from students, faculty, and alumni   Dr. Menna Demessie (PhD ‘10)  is the senior vice president of policy analysis and research at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which advances research and policy that a...

By Rebecca Cohen (MPP ‘09) There are more than 3 trillion Google search results for “leadership.” Articles about the “7 leadership mistakes you’re probably making” and “Why You Can’t Teach Leadership” and “11 leadership characteristics” abound.  What...

Patrick Larkey (MPP ‘71, PhD ‘75) is living the dream at Ariel Pointe of Sachse, Texas where he is writing an unredacted, personal history of the public policy field from its outset. Any old-timers willing to share vivid or not so vivid recollections...

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Ford School faculty weighed in on what happened and what’s next, including the immediate policies a Biden-Harris Administration should tackle.  Jenna BednarProfessor of public policy and political science, Edie ...

The COVID pandemic has been a test of public leadership at all levels, from mom-and-pop business owners to healthcare professionals, from local government officials to governors to federal health experts and the Administration. We sat down with D...

This year hasn’t looked and cannot look like a typical year at the Ford School. Beyond moving classes, events, and office hours to a mix of online and socially-distanced in person formats, we’ve retooled our recruitment strategy, welcomed our new CAP...

The November 2020 elections marked an historic moment for our country. In the chaotic, scary months leading up to it, as a global pandemic raged, we’ve experienced deepening divisions in the U.S., horrifying evidence of racist police violence and whi...

By Daniel Rivkin The frenzied political campaigns of 2020 are over, and President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take office on January 20. With about 153 million votes estimated to have been cast, voter participation of ...

Javed Ali organized a panel for New America on domestic terrorism. His new podcast, The Burn Bag, produced with two Ford School alumni, A'ndre Gonawela (BA ‘19) and Ryan Rosenthal (BA ‘19), has featured U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan, General David Paetr...

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 pandemi...