Policymakers in residence

Real-world leaders, teaching and mentoring Ford School students

A diverse array of policy leaders join our faculty to teach and mentor students through the U.S. State Department Diplomat in Residence, Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence, and Weiser International Policymaker in Residence programs, and more. These visiting professors have significant policy and leadership experience—in government, non-profits, industry, and elsewhere. They enrich the breadth of our course offerings and link our students and faculty to many policymaking communities.

Diplomats in Residence

U-M is one of a very small group of U.S. colleges selected by the U.S. Department of State to host a Diplomat in Residence—a career Foreign Service officer who provides guidance and advice to students interested in exploring careers, internships, or fellowships with the U.S. Foreign and Civil Services. Find out more about engaged learning at the Ford School.

As someone who was younger than most of my peers, and never lived outside of Michigan, having access to the diplomat in residence provided me with the confidence to move forward with a career in the foreign service.
Kristen Grauer (MPP '01)

Ken Roy

U.S. State Department Diplomat in Residence

Ken Roy is the new Diplomat in Residence for the North Central Region. He worked as a lawyer and is now on a political officer career track, and he is fluent in Spanish, basic Dutch, and basic German. His tours include Belize City, Belize; Panama City, Panama; Department of State Operations Center – The Watch; Senior UK Desk Officer; EUR Front Office; The Hague, Netherlands; Department of State Operations Center – Crisis Management Coordinator; Asuncion, Paraguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Foreign Policy Advisor Air Force Special Operations Command; National Defense University; Department of State Board of Assessors. He was most recently on the State Department Board of Assessors. Ken received a BA from Michigan State University. He received his JD from Wayne State Law School and his MA in International Security Studies from the National Defense University at Fort McNair.

Read Roy's profile

Towsley Foundation Policymakers in Residence

Since 2002, the Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence Program has brought national and international leaders to campus to join our faculty. They teach graduate-level courses ranging in length from six weeks to a full semester; host public lectures; and advise and mentor students.

Lori Lightfoot

Towsley Policymaker in Residence, fall 2024

Lori Lightfoot served as Chicago's mayor from 2019-2023. She is the second woman, first Black female and first openly gay person in that role. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot served as senior equity partner in the Litigation and Conflict Resolution Group at Mayer Brown. Before that, she was President of the Chicago Police Board and Chair of the Police Accountability Task Force. Among other prominent roles in the city, Mayor Lightfoot also served as an Assistant US Attorney. She has been a resident of Chicago since 1986.

Read Lightfoot's profile

Bill de Blasio

Towsley Policymaker in Residence, fall 2024

Bill De Blasio served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. He guided the country’s largest city through the pandemic, and among his many other accomplishments he created a groundbreaking early childhood education initiative which became a national model, financed the construction and preservation of more affordable homes than any other New York City administration, and drove the City Council to pass a New York City Green New Deal.

Read de Blasio's profile

Past Towsley Foundation Policymakers in Residence

Bill de Blasio (2024), former mayor of New York City, 2014-2021
Laurel Beatty Blunt (2022-2023), judge for the 10th District Court of Appeals for the State of Ohio
Abdul El-Sayed (2021, 2022), public servant, Michigan politician, former epidemiology professor, and medical doctor
Hardy Vieux, MPP/JD '97 (2017-2022), chief of staff, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND); former senior vice president, legal, at Human Rights First
The Honorable Sander “Sandy” Levin (2019-2022), former U.S. Congressman
Bill Bynum (2021, 2022), CEO of Hope Credit Union
Broderick Johnson (2020), senior of counsel at Covington & Burling and former assistant to the president and cabinet secretary (Obama White House)
Javed Ali (2019-2021), former senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council
Adrienne Harris (2019), superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services and former chief business development officer and general counsel at States Title, Inc.
Gail Wilensky (2019), economist and senior fellow at Project HOPE
Phyllis Meadows (2019, 2021), senior fellow at the Kresge Foundation
Dudley Benoit, MPP '96, (2017-2018), former director of community development finance at Santander Bank
James Kvaal (2016), Undersecretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education; former deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council
Harold Ford, Jr. (2015), former Member of Congress from Tennessee
Gretchen Whitmer (2015), 49th Governor of Michigan and former Michigan Senate Minority Leader
Ruth Browne, MPP/MPH '83, (2015), former CEO Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health
Margo Picken (2014), former director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia at the United Nations
Richard Boucher (2014, 2016), former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and former Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Yazier Henry (2007) former director of Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory
Cecilia Muñoz (2007), former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Obama Administration
Namanga Ngongi (2003), former UN Secretary General's special representative to the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Catherine Bertini (2002), former executive director of the World Food Program

Weiser International Policymakers in Residence

The Weiser Diplomacy Center hosts Weiser International Policymakers in Residence, bringing leading experts and decisionmakers, with deep experience in diplomacy and foreign affairs, to the Ford School.

Daniel Shields

Visiting Policy Practitioner

Ambassador (Ret.) Daniel Shields is a visiting policy practitioner at the Ford School's Weiser Diplomacy Center. He consults, teaches courses and conducts simulations relating to diplomacy and U.S.-Asia relations.

Read Shields's profile

Stephen Biegun

Weiser International Policymaker in Residence

Stephen Biegun has more than three decades of international affairs experience in government and the private sector, including high-level government service with the Department of State, the White House, and the United States Congress. In 2021, he concluded his most recent government service as the Deputy Secretary of State. Prior to that role, he served as U.S. Special Representative for North Korea, directing all U.S. policy on North Korea, leading negotiations, and spearheading U.S. diplomatic efforts on behalf of the Secretary of State.

Read Biegun's profile

Overheard

Governor Gretchen Whitmer

"Four years ago, I also headed to Ann Arbor, to teach a course at the Ford School...and here I experienced my own version of the Michigan Difference. I got to engage with students both undergraduate and graduate, who were so thoughtful and smart. Students who were passionate and eager to learn and full of big ideas."

2019 University of Michigan Commencement Address

Visiting policymakers in the news