our faculty (faculty profiles 2015-16)

Economics and Public Policy

Political Science and Public Policy

Sociology and Public Policy

The Joint PhD ProgramOur Faculty

The faculty of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public

Policy are an interdisciplinary group who meet

the criteria of academic excellence in the social

science disciplines, are enthusiastic teachers and

mentors, and take seriously the implications of their

work for policy problems. Their broad research interests

are demonstrated by the wide range of units with which

they hold joint appointments–––including economics,

political science, sociology, history, math, business,

social work, education, natural resources, information,

and urban planning.

For more information on each faculty member, please

visit us online: fordschool.umich.edu.

Robert Axelrod is the Walgreen Professor for the Study of Human Understanding at the University of Michigan. He has appointments in the Department of Political Science and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. His areas of specialization include international security, formal models, and complex adaptive systems. Bob’s books include Harnessing Complexity (with Michael D. Cohen), Conflict of Interest, The Structure of Decision, The Evolution of Cooperation, and The Complexity of Cooperation. His work focuses on questions of how patterns of social behavior emerge. He draws on the current research in a wide range of disciplines, including biology, psychology, and computer science. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and former president of the American Political Science Association. He is also the winner of several national awards: in 2014 he was awarded the National Medal of Science, the “nation’s highest honor for scientific achievement and leadership,” and in 2015 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Harvard University. Previously, he was named a MacArthur Prize Fellow. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and received his PhD from Yale University.

William Axinn is a research professor at the Institute for Social Research, professor in the Department of Sociology, a faculty affiliate at the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, and a professor of public policy at the Ford School. He is a sociologist and demographer whose research interests center on fertility and family demography. Axinn’s program of research addresses the relationships among social change, the social organization of families, intergen-erational relationships, marriage, cohabitation, fertility and mental health in the United States and Nepal. More recently in his career, Axinn’s interests have evolved to include public policy applications of his research.

Dr. John Ayanian is the Alice Hamilton Professor of Medicine at the Medical School, professor of health management and policy at the School of Public Health, and professor of public policy at the Ford School. He is the director of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at U-M. The Institute incorporates over 450 faculty members from 15 schools and colleges at U-M, including the Ford School. Dr. Ayanian has focused his career on health policy and health services research related to access to care, quality of care, and health care disparities, and has served in key health policy advisory roles to state and federal government. In addition to his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, he holds an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Michael S. Barr is the Roy F. and Jean Humphrey Proffitt Professor of Law, a professor of public policy at the Ford School, and faculty director of the Center on Finance, Law, and Policy. He’s also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and at the Brookings Institution. He served from 2009-2010 as the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, and was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School; an M. Phil in International Relations from Magdalen College, Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar; and his B.A., summa cum laude, with Honors in History, from Yale University.

2015 –2016 Facul t y Prof i les

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Ambassador Richard Boucher is a Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence at the Ford School. Following his retirement as Deputy Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), he has taught at Michigan and other universities. Richard enjoyed an extremely successful career with the State Department, becoming the longest-serving Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and managing relations with Afghanistan, Paksitan and India as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia (2006-2009). He also served as Ambassador to Cyprus (1996-1999). He will be in residence winter 2016, teaching two full-semester courses.

Sarah Burgard is an associate professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan Department of Sociology, an associate professor of epidemiology, and a professor of public policy at the Ford School. Her research focuses on the way systems of stratification and inequality impact the health of people and populations. Much of her work focuses on socioeco-nomic, gender, and racial/ethnic disparities in working lives and the relationships between working careers and health. She studies mental and physical health, as well as health behaviors, with a particular interest in sleep. In related work, she has studied the impact of recessions on well-being. Burgard also studies adult and child health in Brazil. She holds an MS in epidemiology and PhD in sociology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Sarah Cannon is a postdoctoral fellow with the Ford School’s Education Policy Initiative (EPI). Her research interests focus on education policy, and how the rural social context affects individuals and communities. Previously, she taught high school math through Teach for America in South Dakota. Cannon holds a PhD in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree from Carleton College.

John R. Chamberlin is a professor emeritus of political science and public policy. His research interests include ethics and public policy, professional ethics, and methods of election and representation. He taught the core course “Values, Ethics, and Public Policy” at the Ford School. He was the founding director of the Ford School’s BA in Public Policy program from 2007-2011 and the director of U-M’s Center for Ethics in Public Life from 2008-2011. John has a BS in industrial engineering from Lehigh University and a PhD in decision sciences from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Beth Chimera is a writing instructor at the Ford School. She teaches the “Introduction to Policy Writing” first-year graduate course and offers individual tutorial hours to graduate and under-graduate students. A New York City native, Chimera has worked as a senior or contributing editor for a variety of national publications, as well as for the James Beard Foundation. She received her MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, where she has taught expository and creative writing, and is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for her short fiction.


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John D. Ciorciari is an assistant professor of public policy and co-director of the Ford School’s International Policy Center. His research focuses on international law and politics in the Global South. He is the author of The Limits of Alignment: Southeast Asia and the Great Powers since 1975 (Georgetown University Press 2010) and co-author of Hybrid Justice: The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (University of Michigan Press 2014). In 2015, he was selected as part of the inaugural class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows. Before coming to Michigan, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford. From 2004-07, he served as a policy official in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of International Affairs. He is a senior legal advisor to the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which promotes historical memory and justice for the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime. He is also an associate fellow at the Asia Society and term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds an AB and JD from Harvard and MPhil and DPhil from Oxford.

David K. Cohen is the John Dewey Professor of Education in the School of Education and professor of public policy at the Ford School. His research focuses on the relationships between education policy and classroom practice in K-12 education, and on efforts to improve schooling. He was co-director of a national study of efforts to improve teaching and learning in high-poverty elementary schools. A nationally recognized authority on educational reform, David taught at Harvard and Michigan State before coming to the University of Michigan. At the Ford School he teaches a class in education policy. David received his PhD from the University of Rochester.

Cheryl N. Collier is an associate professor and undergraduate chair in the Department of Political Science at the University of Windsor. Collier will be teaching a class at the Ford School during the 2015-2016 academic year. Her present research examines the impact of federalism on sub-national child care advocacy in Canada and the United States. She has also recently completed a research project examining shifting levels of feminist discourse inside of child care and anti-violence policy debates both federally and provincially in Canada. Collier is director of the University of Windsor’s Health Research Centre for the Study of Violence Against Women.

Susan M. Collins is the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a professor of public policy and economics. Before coming to Michigan, she was a professor of economics at Georgetown University and a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, where she retains a nonresident affiliation. She is an international economist whose research interests focus on implications of increasing international economic integration, and determinants of economic growth in industrial, emerging market, and developing countries. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Detroit Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She served a term as president of the Association for Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) from 2013-2015 and, earlier in her career, as a senior staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Collins received her BA summa cum laude in economics from Harvard University and her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.



Mary E. Corcoran is a professor of public policy, political science, and women’s studies. Her research focuses on the effects of gender and race discrimination on economic status and earnings, and on professional women’s career trajectories. Mary has published articles on intergenerational mobility, the underclass, and sex-based and race-based inequality. She teaches seminars on poverty and inequality and on women and employment. Mary received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Paul Courant is the Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, professor of economics, and professor of information at the University of Michigan. Courant has served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, as university librarian and dean of libraries, as associate provost for academic and budgetary affairs, as chair of the Department of Economics, and as director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies (prede-cessor of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy). He served as a senior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers from 1979 to 1980. Courant has authored half a dozen books and over seventy papers covering a broad range of topics in economics and public policy. More recently, his academic work has considered the economics of universities, the economics of libraries and archives, and the effects of new information technologies and other disruptions on scholarship, scholarly publication, and academic libraries. He was a founding board member of both the HathiTrust Digital Library and the Digital Public Library of America, and is a member of the advisory committee of the Authors Alliance. Courant holds a BA in history from Swarthmore College (1968), an MA in economics from Princeton University (1973), and a PhD in economics from Princeton University (1974).

Sandra Danziger is the Edith A. Lewis Collegiate Professor of Social Work and research professor of public policy at the Ford School. Her primary research interests are the effects of public programs and policies on the wellbeing of disadvantaged families, poverty policy and social service programs, demographic trends in child and family wellbeing, gender issues across the life course, program evaluation, and qualitative research methods. Her current research examines low-income families’ participation in public and private nonprofit programs and their role in addressing barriers to work, especially for single mothers. She is a co-investigator on the Michigan Recession and Recovery Study, and has helped evaluate a family support program provided by Starfish Family Services. She conducted an implementation study of Michigan’s Jobs, Education, and Training pilot projects and was principal investigator on the Women’s Employment Study.



Sheldon Danziger is President of the Russell Sage Foundation and the Henry J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at the Ford School . He was also Director of the National Poverty Center at the Ford School. Danziger is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 2008 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, t he 2010 John Kenneth Galbraith fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Director of the Research and Training Program on Poverty and Public Policy. His research focuses on social welfare policies and on the effects of economic, demographic, and public policy changes on trends in poverty and inequality. Among his publications, he is the co-author of America Unequal (with Peter Gottschalk, 1995) and co-editor of Legacies of the War on Poverty (with Martha J. Bailey, 2013). Professor Danziger received his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Matthew Davis is professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases and internal medicine at the U-M Medical School, professor of public policy at the Ford School, and professor of health management and policy at the U-M School of Public Health. Having served as the State of Michigan’s Chief Medical Executive from 2013–2015, Dr. Davis was recently appointed to serve as the deputy director of the U-M’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. Davis is the faculty lead for the MD/MPP dual degree program at the U-M. He also serves as a mentor for research fellows and graduate students, for which he was honored with the MICHR Distinguished Mentorship Award in 2012, and as an active clinician within the U-M Health System. Dr. Davis earned his MD cum laude from Harvard Medical School and an MA in public policy from the Harris School at the University of Chicago, as an Irving Harris Fellow in Child Policy.

Alan V. Deardorff is the John W. Sweetland Professor of International Economics and a professor of public policy. Alan’s research focuses on international trade. With Bob Stern, he has developed the Michigan Model of World Production and Trade, which is used to estimate the effects of trade agreements. Alan is also doing theoretical work in international trade and trade policy. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Labor, State, and Treasury and to international organizations including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Bank. Alan received his PhD from Cornell University.

Stephen DesJardins is a professor of education and public policy. He teaches courses related to public policy in higher education, economics, and finances in postsecondary education, statistical methods, and institutional research and policy analysis. His research interests include student transitions from high school to college, what happens to students once they enroll in college, the economics of education, and applying statistical techniques to the study of these issues. He is on the editorial board of Economics of Education Review, is a contributing editor to Research in Higher Education, and is the methodology section editor for Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. DesJardins received a BS in economics from Northern Michigan University, an MA in policy analysis and labor economics from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (University of Minnesota), and a PhD in higher education, also from Minnesota.



John DiNardo is a professor of economics and public policy and a visiting professor at the U-M Law School. His interests include applied econometrics, labor economics, health economics, political science, and a little bit of philosophy. Two of his recent publications include “Wellness Incentives In The Workplace: Cost Savings Through Cost Shifting To Unhealthy Workers” and “New Evidence on the Finite Sample Properties of Propensity Score Reweighting and Matching Estimators.” He is working on a number of projects including a paper on the impacts of labor unions on wages and inequality and a revision of his textbook Econometric Methods. He received a BA and an MPP from the University of Michigan and his PhD from Princeton University.

Kathryn M. Dominguez is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Ford School and a professor of public policy and economics. Her research interests include topics in international financial markets and macroeconomics. She has written numerous articles on foreign exchange rate behavior and is the author of Exchange Rate Efficiency and the Behavior of International Asset Markets and Does Foreign Exchange Intervention Work? (with Jeff Frankel). She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She has also worked as a research consultant for USAID, the Federal Reserve System, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Bank for International Settlements. Kathryn teaches macroeconomics, finance, and international economics at the Ford School. She received her PhD from Yale University.

James J. Duderstadt is President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering. A graduate of Yale (’64 BSE in electrical engineering) and Caltech (’65 MS and ’67 PhD in engineering science and physics), Duderstadt’s teaching, research, and publishing activities include nuclear science and engineering, applied physics, computer simulation, science policy, and higher education policy. He has served on and chaired numerous policy bodies including the National Science Board, the executive council of the National Academies, and advisory committees for various federal agencies. He currently chairs the Policy and Global Affairs Division of the National Research Council and serves as a senior scholar of the Brookings Institution. He has received numerous awards including the E. O. Lawrence Award for excellence in nuclear research, the Arthur Holly Compton Prize for outstanding teaching, the National Medal of Technology for technological innovation, and the Vannevar Bush Award for exemplary service to the nation. He currently teaches in the program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Ford School, and conducts research in the Millennium Project, a think-tank exploring the impact of over-the-horizon technologies on society, located in the James and Anne Duderstadt Center on the University’s North Campus.



Susan M. Dynarski is a professor of education, public policy, and economics, and serves as co-director of the Ford School’s Education Policy Initiative. She is a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is currently an editor of Education Finance and Policy as well as Educational Evalua-tion and Policy Analysis. Dynarski’s research focuses on methods for causal inference, charter schools, the return to schooling, demand for private schooling, historical trends in inequality in educational attainment, and the optimal design of financial aid. Dynarski has testified to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, and the President’s Commission on Tax Reform. She has consulted broadly on student aid reform, including at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, White House, Treasury and Department of Education and frequently consults with the Council of Economic Advisers on education policy. Dynarski holds an AB in social studies, a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University, and a PhD in economics from MIT.

Reynolds Farley is a research scientist at the Population Studies Center and the Dudley Duncan Professor Emeritus of Sociology. Farley’s research interests concern population trends in the United States, focusing on racial differences, ethnicity, and urban structure. His current work focuses upon the revitalization of Rust Belt metropolises. He maintains a website describing the history and future of Detroit (www.Detroit1701.org). He received his PhD from the University of Chicago. At the Ford School, Farley teaches a course on the history and future of Detroit.

Harold Ford, Jr. is a Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the Ford School. He represented Tennessee in the U.S. Congress for 10 years, where he served on both the Financial Services and Budget Committees. Since leaving office in 2007, Ford continues to work to promote healthy non-partisan debate on today’s most pressing issues in Washington and in communities across the country. The author of New York Times best-seller More Davids Than Goliaths (Crown 2010), Ford serves as a political analyst and contributor for NBC News. Ford is active with several nonprofits and foundations. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a B.A. in American History, and a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He will join us in fall 2015, teaching a half-semester course: “Contemporary Public Policy Formation.”

Elisabeth R. Gerber is the Jack L. Walker, Jr. Professor of Public Policy at the Ford School, professor of political science (by courtesy), and research associate at the Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research. Her current research focuses on regionalism and intergov-ernmental cooperation, sustainable development, urban climate adaptation, transportation policy, community and economic development, local fiscal capacity, and local political accountability. She is the author of The Populist Paradox: Interest Group Influence and the Promise of Direct Legislation (1999), co-author of Stealing the Initiative: How State Government Responds to Direct Democracy (2000), and co-editor of Voting at the Political Fault Line: California’s Experiment with the Blanket Primary (2001) and Michigan at the Millennium (2003). She is on the board of directors of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance and currently serves as vice-chair of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Michigan.



Edie N. Goldenberg is a professor of political science and public policy. She served as dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts from 1989-98 and is the founding director of the Michigan in Washington Program. Her research interests include the politics of higher education; her most recent book is Off-Track Profs: Nontenured Teachers in Higher Education (MIT Press 2009), co-authored with John Cross. She is also author of Making the Papers: The Access of Resource Poor Groups to the Metropolitan Papers and co-author of Campaigning for Congress. Edie served in the federal Office of Personnel Management. She is a member of the National Academy of Public Administration and a life member of the MIT Corporation. Edie served as director of the Ford School from 1987-89.

Neel Hajra is a lecturer at the Ford School. He is currently the chief operating officer and vice president for community investment at the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation. His background includes a CEO role at Nonprofit Enterprise at Work and several years as a corporate attorney at Ford Motor Company. In 2009 Neel was named as an American Express NGen Fellow, and in 2010 he was honored with an Aspen Institute Fellowship for Emerging Nonprofit Leaders. At the Ford School, he teaches about management and policy in the nonprofit sector. Neel received a BS in physics and a JD from the University of Michigan.

Richard L. Hall is a professor of political science and public policy. His research interests focus on American national politics. He has studied participation and representation in Congress, campaign finance reform, congressional oversight, issue advertising, and health politics. He is currently writing a book on interest group lobbying and the role of political money in Congressional policy making. Rick is the author of Participation in Congress (1996). Prior to coming to the Ford School, he served in a staff role on Capitol Hill. At the Ford School, Rick teaches courses on the politics of policy analysis, policy advocacy, and the politics of health policy. He received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jonathan Hanson is a lecturer in statistics for public policy at the Ford School. As a specialist in comparative political economy and political development, his research examines the ways in which, and the channels through which, political institutions affect economic performance and human development. In recent projects, he has explored whether democracy and state capacity complement or substitute for each other when it comes to improving human development and why authoritarian regimes vary significantly in economic and social outcomes. Hanson holds an MA in economics and a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan.

Catherine Hausman is an assistant professor of public policy. Her research interests are in environ-mental and energy economics, and applied econometrics. She is currently studying the implications of nuclear plant closures for CO2 emissions, and she recently released a working paper on the value of electricity transmission. In the past, she has worked on electricity market deregulation and nuclear power safety. She has also published papers on land use change associated with biofuels production. Catherine received her BA from the University of Minnesota and her MS and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to her graduate studies, Catherine studied in Peru under a Fulbright grant. As a graduate student, she worked at the University of California Energy Institute and the World Bank.



Josh Hausman is an assistant professor of public policy and economics. His research interests are in economic history and macroeconomics with a focus on the 1930s. He is currently studying what ended the Great Depression in the U.S. in the spring of 1933, French economic stagnation in the mid-1930s, and the role of the auto industry in the double-dip recession of 1937–38. In addition to his work on the Great Depression, Josh is interested in the contemporary Japanese economy, particularly the macroeconomic effects of `Abenomics.’ Josh holds a BA in economics from Swarthmore College and a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. From 2005 to 2007 he worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board, and in 2010 he worked as a staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers.

Yazier Henry is a lecturer at the Ford School. As a public intellectual, scholar, strategist, political analyst, and professional human rights advocate, he has written and published on the political economy of social voice, memory, trauma, identity, peace processes, Truth Commissions, and international transitional justice. His current research and writing projects focus on how structural and administrative violence come to be institutionalized during post-colonial transitions. He studies and has in-depth experience in social and political movements, social and political systems, strategic communications, political strategy, and conflict management. Among the courses Henry has taught at the Ford School are “Social Activism, Democracy, and Globalization: Perspectives of the Global South” and “Facilitating Dialogue across Faultlines: Race, Identity, Leadership and Socio-Structural Difference”. Henry gained his early advocacy experience in the international anti-apartheid movement.

John Hieftje is a lecturer at the Ford School. He is the longest-serving mayor in Ann Arbor history, first taking the office in 2000 and concluding his tenure in 2014. John has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Huron River Watershed Council and the Lake Superior Conservancy and Watershed Council. He is the co-chair of the Washtenaw Metro Alliance and has served as chair of Recycle Ann Arbor and of the Urban Core Mayors of Michigan. He has received several environmental awards including the Environmental Leadership Award from the Michigan League of Conservation Voters (2008) and the Local Elected Official of the Year Award from the Michigan Recreation and Parks Association (2004).

Rusty Hills is a lecturer at the Ford School. He is Senior Advisor to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and has spent the better part of three decades in public service and politics. He was twice elected unanimously to serve as Chair of the Michigan Republican Party and had previously served ten years as part of Governor John Engler’s executive team, including as Director of Communications and Director of Public Affairs. Prior to politics, he worked as a reporter and anchorman for CBS and NBC television and radio affiliates in Lansing, Jackson and Flint, Michigan, and in South Bend, Indiana. Hills has a BA in telecommunications from Michigan State University and a Master of Government from the University of Notre Dame.



Debra Horner is on staff with the Ford School’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) where she is a Project Manager on the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) program. She will be teaching a course at the Ford School in the winter 2016 semester. She attended Duke University for her undergraduate work and received her doctorate in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2007. Debra’s primary areas of research center on political attitudes and political participation with her dissertation research focusing on the concept of political interest and the different ways we can think about individuals’ engagement in political processes.

James S. House is the Angus Campbell Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Survey Research, Public Policy, and Sociology. His research has focused on the role of social and psychological factors in the etiology and course of health and illness, including the role of psychosocial factors in understanding and alleviating social disparities in health and the way health changes with age. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences. At the Ford School he has taught courses on the relation between socioeconomic policy and health policy. Jim has co-edited Making Americans Healthier: Social and Economic Policy as Health Policy (with Bob Schoeni of the Ford School and others) and A Telescope on Society: Survey Research & Social Science at the University of Michigan and Beyond. He recently published Beyond Obamacare: Life, Death, and Social Policy (Russell Sage Foundation, June 2015). He received his PhD in social psychology from the University of Michigan.

Brian A. Jacob is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and professor of economics at the Ford School, and is co-director of the Education Policy Initiative. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Brian came to Michigan from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; he previously served as a policy analyst in the NYC Mayor’s Office and taught middle school in East Harlem. His primary fields of interest are labor economics, program evaluation, and the economics of education. Brian’s current research focuses on urban school reform, with a particular emphasis on standards and accountability initiatives. At the Ford School, he teaches “Economics of Education” and classes focused on education policy. The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) presented the David N. Kershaw Award to Brian in 2008 for his contributions to public policy analysis and management. He received a BA from Harvard University in 1992 and a PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago.

Michelle Jones is the U.S. Department of State Diplomat in Residence for the north central region. She recently returned from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, after serving as cultural affairs officer, overseeing educational and cultural exchanges and outreach. She has also served in Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Bangladesh, and Poland in public affairs and as a principal officer. Prior to the foreign service, she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Estonia and a professor at Muskingum College in Ohio. She holds a PhD in 20th century literature from University of Alberta, MA in English from Acadia University, and BS from Eastern Michigan University.


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Valenta Kabo is a postdoctoral research fellow and program director at the Center for Diverse Studies in Public Policy at the Ford School. Her fields of interest are law and economics, compara-tive law, property rights and development. She is particularly interested in how changes in law affect different political and economic development outcomes. She earned her PhD in political science and public policy from the University of Michigan. She also has a MPP and a JD from the University of Michigan. Prior to beginning her doctorate program, she practiced immigration law and worked as a researcher for an employee assessment organization.

Shirli Kopelman is a professor of management and organizations at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at teaches classes at the Ford School. As a leading researcher, expert, and educator in the field of negotiations, Kopelman is also serves as Core Faculty at the Center for Positive Organizations, and President-Elect of the International Association for Conflict Management. Her strong academic background and hands-on experience led her to develop a groundbreaking positive framework for negotiations, Negotiating Genuinely®. Kopelman has received outstanding teaching awards for innovative and impactful experiential action-oriented teaching.

Paula Lantz is the Associate Dean for Research and Policy Engagement and a professor of public policy at the Ford School. She most recently was professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. From 1994-2011, she was faculty member at the University of Michigan with a primary appointment in the School of Public Health, and affiliations with the Ford School and the Institute for Social Research. Lantz, a social demographer, studies the role of public health in health care reform, clinical preventive services (such as cancer screening and prenatal care), and social inequalities in health. She is particularly interested in the role of health care versus broad social policy aimed at social determinants of health in reducing social disparities in health status. She is currently doing research regarding the potential of social impact bonds to reduce Medicaid expenditures. Lantz received an MA in sociology from Washington University, St. Louis, and an MS in epidemiology and PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin.

John Leahy is the Allen Sinai Professor of Macroeconomics, a joint appointment between the Ford School and the Department of Economics. His research interests center on economic fluctuations and macroeconomic policy with a focus on the roles that market frictions and imperfect information play in shaping economic outcomes. Leahy is a leading authority on macroeconomics, serving as a coeditor of the American Economic Review and as a visiting scholar to the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Philadelphia, and Kansas City. He earned a MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University.



Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky, a retired senior American diplomat, is professor of international policy and practice at the Ford School; a senior fellow of the school’s International Policy Center; a member of the U-M’s Substance Abuse Research Center (UMSARC); a member of the Steering Committee of the University’s Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies; and a faculty associate of the Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES). From 2003 to 2012, by vote of the UN Economic and Social Council, he was a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent body of international drug policy experts headquartered in Vienna, Austria. During his 35-year career as an American Foreign Service Officer, Mel was Ambassador to Brazil from 1994-98 and before that held such senior positions as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, Executive Secretary of the State Department, Ambassador to Bulgaria, Deputy Director of the Voice of America, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights. On his retirement he received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award.

Helen Levy is a research associate professor at the Ford School as well as at the Institute for Social Research and the Department of Health Policy in the School of Public Health. She is a co-investigator on the Health and Retirement Study, a long-running longitudinal study of health and economic dynamics at older ages. Her research interests include the causes and consequences of lacking health insurance, evaluation of public health insurance programs, and the role of health literacy in explaining disparities in health outcomes. Before coming to the University of Michigan she was an assistant professor at the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and served as a senior economist to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2010–11. She received a PhD in economics from Princeton.

Ann Chih Lin is an associate professor of public policy and political science. Ann writes on immigration policy, and is especially interested in how states can create policies to recruit immigrants under federal guidance. She was co-principal investigator on the Detroit Arab American Study, a landmark public opinion survey of Arab Americans in Detroit, and a co-author of a book on the study, Citizenship in Crisis: Arab Detroit after 9/11. With David Harris, she is the co-author of the collection The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Poverty Continue to Exist. She is the author of Reform in the Making: The Implementation of Social Policy in Prison and the co-editor, with Sheldon Danziger, of Coping with Poverty: The Social Contexts of Neighborhood, Work, and Family in the African-American Community. She serves on national and local boards and was formerly a social worker with Covenant House in New York City. Ann received her PhD in political science from the University of Chicago.

Wei Liu is an associate professor at the School of Public Administration and Policy at Renmin University of China and a visiting professor of public policy at the Ford School. Her teaching and research interests include policy processes, international organizations and Chinese politics. She leads the Center of Global Governance at the Academy of Public Policy at Renmin as well as several research projects, including “The Mechanism of Global Public Policy” and “Non-Traditional Security in Southeast Asia.” She holds a master of laws from Peking University and a PhD in political science from Arizona State University.



Yunhua Liu is currently a professor of economics at Renmin University of China, an adjunct professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and a visiting professor of public policy at the Ford School. Liu’s research areas cover the economic relationship of Southeast Asia and China, urban economic development, and Chinese Economy. The main courses he teaches for graduate students are Chinese Economy and Investment Environment of China. He earned an undergraduate degree in engineering and completed a master of science in management science from Northeastern University in China. He earned his PhD in economics from Ohio State University.

Sharon Maccini is a lecturer of public policy and director of the Ford School’s BA program. She has taught courses in public health, public finance, and applied microeconomics to MPP and BA students. As a health economist, her overarching research interest is the econometric evaluation of public health policies. Sharon’s research has focused on the impact of decentraliza-tion on health outcomes and public health, and the role of environmental conditions at birth on health and socioeconomic status in adulthood. Sharon holds a BA in political science from Brown University and a PhD in health policy from Harvard University.

Brian McCall is a professor of education, economics, and public policy. He is an economist whose research interests include applied econometrics, econometrics theory, economics of education and education policy, research design and quasi-experimental research, labor economics, social insurance, and health economics. McCall studies problems in both K-12 and higher education, including using econometric methods to model and evaluate intervention program effects. He is currently studying the effects of tuition subsidies on college outcomes, the determinants of college choice, and the impact of unemployment insurance receipt on re-employment and future labor market outcomes. McCall received his PhD in economics from Princeton University.

Katherine Michelmore is a postdoctoral fellow with the Ford School’s Education Policy Initiative. Her current research interests focus on the interaction of public policies and family structure, family demography, and access to higher education. Katherine previously worked as a research assistant at the Urban Institute specializing in Social Security reform policy and forecasting changing demographic patterns in the U.S. She holds a PhD in policy analysis and management from Cornell University and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.

Sarah Mills is a postdoctoral fellow at the Ford School’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP). She serves as project manager for the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), supports the National Surveys on Energy and Environment (NSEE), and is continuing research looking at the impact of wind energy policy on rural communities. Sarah holds a master’s degree in engineering for sustainable development from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor in mechanical engineering from Villanova University. She earned her PhD in urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan.



Chad Monfreda is a Dow postdoctoral fellow at the Ford School. While completing his doctoral work, his research focused on carbon markets in California and Mexico. Monfreda has wide-rang-ing experience on sustainability science and policy, including through Arizona State University’s IGERT in Urban Ecology, a MacArthur Foundation project on Advancing Conservation in a Social Context, and a joint ASU-National Academy of Engineering initiative on Energy Ethics in Science and Engineering Education. He earned a PhD in the human and social dimentions of science and technology from Arizona State University.

Jeffrey D. Morenoff is a professor of sociology, a research professor at the Institute for Social Research (ISR), and a professor of public policy at the Ford School. He is also director of the ISR Population Studies Center. Professor Morenoff’s research interests include neighborhood environments, inequality, crime and criminal justice, the social determinants of health, racial/ethnic/immigrant disparities in health and antisocial behavior, and methods for analyzing multilevel and spatial data. In 2004, Morenoff won the Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology for “outstanding contributions to the discipline of criminology. He earned an MA and PhD in sociology from The University of Chicago.

David Morse is a lecturer at the Ford School, where he teaches expository writing and an undergraduate course on utopianism. Before completing a master’s degree in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, he edited for an educational nonprofit organization in Washington, DC, and taught English as a second language in Iwakuni, Japan. His fiction has appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories, as well as magazines such as One Story, The Missouri Review, and Short Fiction. His play, Quartet, was performed in collaboration with the Takács Quartet and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 2010.

Kary L. Moss is a visiting lecturer at the Ford School. She has served as the executive director of the ACLU of Michigan since 1998. She has clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and worked in New York at the national ACLU Women’s Rights Project as a staff attorney. In 2011 she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame and in 2015 was the recipient of the NAACP-Detroit’s Ida Thurtell Award. She has published three books on women’s health and rights as well as law review articles, and commentaries. Moss earned a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University and a juris doctor from CUNY Law School at Queen’s College.

Alexandra K. Murphy is an assistant professor of sociology, a faculty affiliate of the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research, and a professor of public policy at the Ford School. In her research, she uses ethnographic methods to examine how poverty and inequality are experienced, structured, and reproduced across and within multiple domains of social life, including neighborhoods, social networks, and the state. Murphy is currently working on her book, When the Sidewalks End: Poverty in an American Suburb (Oxford University Press), an ethnographic study of the social organization of poverty in one suburb. She received her PhD in sociology and social policy from Princeton University.



Homer Neal is Director of the UM-ATLAS Project, the Samuel A. Goudsmit Professor of Physics, Interim President Emeritus, and Vice President Emeritus for Research at the University of Michigan. From 1987 to 1993 he was Chair of the University of Michigan Physics Department. While on the National Science Board he chaired the committee that produced the Board’s first comprehensive report on undergraduate science education. A result of that study is the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (REU), and the Research Experience for Teachers Program (RET) now flourishing today. He has also served as Chairman of the Physics Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation. Following completion of research at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, Professor Neal will once again teach “Science, Technology, and Public Policy” at the Ford School.

Mara Cecilia Ostfeld is a postdoctoral fellow at the Ford School of Public Policy. Mara’s current research focuses on the effects of exposure to Spanish-language media on both actual patterns of Latino political identification, as well as how Latinos are perceived politically. Beyond this research, her work has explored questions relating to immigration attitudes, news frames, and survey techniques. She is the co-author of a forthcoming piece in Political Communication, “Revisiting the effects of case studies in the news,” with Diana C. Mutz. Mara received her PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and her MPP from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Jason Owen-Smith is the Barger Leadership Institute Professor of Organizational Studies; a professor of sociology; a research professor in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan where he also directs the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS); and a professor of public policy at the Ford School. Owen-Smith uses dynamic network methods with large scale data sets to examine topics relevant to science policy, innovation, higher education, regional economic development and medical care. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industries Studies Fellowship in Biotechnology. In 2008, Owen-Smith received the University of Michigan’s Henry Russel Award, which recognizes mid-career faculty for exceptional scholarship and conspicuous teaching ability. He received his MA and PhD in sociology at the University of Arizona.

Shobita Parthasarathy is an associate professor of public policy. Her research focuses on the governance of emerging science and technology, particularly those that have uncertain environ-mental, social, ethical, political, and health implications. Much of her research focuses on politics and policy related to genetics and biotechnology. Her work is usually cross-national in scope, and thus far she has focused on the United States, Europe, and India. She is the author of multiple articles and a book entitled Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care (MIT Press 2007; paperback 2012). This book influenced the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the patentability of human genes. Her second book explores the controversies over life form patents in the United States and Europe. New research projects investigate grassroots innovation, controversies over geoengineering, and the regulation of human genetic engineering. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and PhD from Cornell University.


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Natasha Pilkauskas is an assistant professor of public policy at the Ford School. Pilkauskas’ research broadly focuses on the health, development and well-being of low-income families and children. She is particularly interested in the role that private support networks play in helping families make ends meet. Much of her research focuses on the role that grandparents play in the lives of their grandchildren. She also examines the effects of economic wellbeing (material hardship, unemployment, poverty) and public policy on families and children. Dr. Pilkauskas received a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University and a PhD in Social Welfare Policy from Columbia University.

Barry Rabe is the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy, Arthur Thurnau Professor at the Ford School, and director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), with additional appointments in the Department of Political Science, the Program in the Environment, and the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Much of his recent research examines sub-federal development of policies to reduce greenhouse gases in the United States and other federal systems. In 2006, Barry became the first social scientist to receive a Climate Protection Award from the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency in recognition of his contribution to both scholarship and policymaking. Barry is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and has served on NAPA panels as well as the 2013-14 National Resource Council Committee on Shale Gas Risks and Governance. Beginning in summer 2015, Barry will spend one year on leave at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in DC as a Public Policy Scholar.

Daniel Raimi is a policy researcher and analyst with expertise on energy policy issues including oil and gas markets and policy, regulation of unconventional oil and gas production, state fiscal policy design for oil and gas production, the climate implications of shale gas development, and federal climate policy design. He has published in academic journals including Science, Environ-mental Science and Technology, Journal of Economic Perspectives, and the Annual Review of Resource Economics. He received his master’s degree in public policy from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and his bachelor’s degree in music from Wesleyan University. Daniel will be teaching an undergraduate course, “Oil and Gas Policy in the US,” at the Ford School during the winter 2016 semester.

Kaitlin Raimi is an assistant professor of public policy at the Ford School. A social psychologist, her interests center on how social motivations have the potential to promote or prevent sustain-able behaviors. While completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy & Environment at Vanderbilt University, Raimi’s research focused on how people compare their own beliefs and behaviors to those of other people, how the desire to make a good impression can influence people to mitigate climate change, and how adopting one sustainable behavior affects subsequent environmental decisions. She received an MA and PhD in social psychology from Duke University.



Alex L. Ralph is a lecturer in expository writing at the Ford School. For over a decade he taught in the Sweetland Center for Writing and the English Department at the University of Michigan. In 2009 he received the English Department’s Ben Prize for excellence in the teaching of writing. Alex also serves as an instructor in the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) summer institute. He received his BA from Swarthmore College and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. Joy Rohde is an assistant professor of public policy and history at the Ford School. She specializes in U.S. foreign policy history, intellectual history, and science and technology studies. Her first book, Armed with Expertise: The Militarization of American Social Research during the Cold War (Cornell, 2013), investigates the Cold War origins and contemporary consequences of military funding for social science and foreign policy research. Her current research examines the impact computer technologies have had on social science and policy analysis in the United States. Rohde earned a PhD in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Craig Ruff is a lecturer in public policy. He served previously as the senior policy advisor for education to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. From 1986 to 2006, he was president of Public Sector Consultants—a Lansing, Michigan firm specializing in health, education, economic, and environmental policy. Prior to joining the firm, he served for eleven years in the executive office of the governor, working primarily on human services issues and serving as chief of staff to the lieutenant governor. He is a member of the University of Michigan Alumni Association board; the University’s Honorary Degree selection committee; and the executive committee of the Education Achievement Authority. At the Ford School, he teaches courses on state politics and policies. Craig received his AB and MPP from the University of Michigan.

Irving Salmeen is a lecturer in public policy the Ford School, currently teaching an undergraduate course on social-systems, energy, and policy. From 2012-2015 he served as the associate director of the Science and Technology Policy Program. From 2007-2012 he was a research scientist in the U-M Center for the Study of Complex Systems. In 2007, he retired from a 36 year career in the Scientific Research Laboratory of Ford Motor Company. At retirement he headed the Lab’s Systems Analytics Department, which worked on mathematical models to solve business, manufacturing, and vehicle technology problems. His PhD is in biophysics and his undergraduate degrees are in engineering physics and mathematics, all from the University of Michigan.

Surry Scheerer (LMSW) is a lecturer at the Ford School, where she teaches a course on profes-sional development. She is a leadership and organizational culture consultant, trainer, and coach. Scheerer is a coach for custom programs at the U-M’s Ross School of Business Executive Education Program, and is the coach leader for the Executive MBA program. She is a trainer and professional development coach for the International Professional Fellows Exchange at ISR. Scheerer also consults with private firms on leadership development and organizational culture. Scheerer received her BS in human development and social policy from Northwestern University and her Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan.



Bob Schoeni is a professor of economics and public policy and the co-investigator of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a national panel survey of families assessing issues of poverty, income, family formation, wealth, and health since 1968. His teaching and research interests include program evaluation, welfare policy, economics and demographics of aging, labor economics, and immigration. He worked previously at RAND, where he was associate director of the Labor and Population Program and also served as senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in Washington, DC. Bob received his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.

John J.H. “Joe” Schwarz is a lecturer in public policy at the Ford School. He received his under-graduate degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1959, and his medical degree from Wayne State University in 1964. Dr. Schwarz served his residency in otolaryngology at Harvard University, finishing in 1973. He has been in private practice in Battle Creek, Michigan for 39 years. Dr. Schwarz served in Southeast Asia for five years, first with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam and as Assistant Naval Attaché in Indonesia. He then served with the Central Intelligence Agency in Laos and in Vietnam. Dr. Schwarz was a City Commissioner then Mayor of Battle Creek, from 1979 until 1986. He was in the Michigan Senate from 1987 until 2002, serving as President Pro Tempore of the Senate from 1993 until 2002. From 2005 to 2007 he was a Member of Congress. Dr. Schwarz was chairman of the board of directors of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan 2005-2007, and serves on numerous boards and commissions. He was a faculty member at Harvard for one year and holds 11 honorary degrees. In 2007, Dr. Schwarz served on the panel to investigate care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, appointed by the Secretary of Defense, on the Governor’s Emergency Financial Advisory Panel, and chaired the successful 2008 Constitu-tional Amendment proposal allowing Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research in Michigan. As a lecturer at the Ford School, he teaches “Topics in Public Policy: Congress and State Legislatures.”

Kristin S. Seefeldt is an assistant professor at the School of Social Work and at the Ford School. Her primary research interests lie in exploring how low-income individuals understand their situations, particularly around issues related to work and economic well-being. She is the author of Working After Welfare (W.E. Upjohn Institute Press) and America’s Poor and the Great Recession (Indiana University Press). Currently, she is conducting research on families’ financial coping strategies during an economic downturn and another project on less-educated individuals’ perceptions of education and career opportunities. Previously, Seefeldt was the Assistant Director of the National Poverty Center. She holds a doctoral degree from the University of Michigan in Sociology and Public Policy and an MPP from the Ford School.

H. Luke Shaefer is an associate professor of social work and public policy. His research focuses on the effectiveness of the United States social safety net in serving low-wage workers and economically disadvantaged families. His recent work explores rising levels of extreme poverty in the United States, the impact of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other means-tested programs on material hardships, and barriers to unemployment insurance faced by vulnerable workers. His book $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, co-authored by Kathryn Edin, was released in September 2015.



Charles R. Shipan is the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Professor of Social Sciences, professor of political science in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and a professor of public policy at the Ford School. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan, Shipan served on the faculty at the University of Iowa, and he has also held positions as a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, as a visiting research fellow at Trinity College in Dublin, and as a visiting fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Designing Judicial Review, co-author of Deliberate Discretion?, and has written numerous articles and book chapters on political institutions and public policy. He is currently engaged in a comparative study of antismoking laws in the U.S. and Switzerland and an examination of the effects of bipartisanship on public policy. Shipan received a BA in chemistry from Carleton College and an MA and PhD in political science from Stanford University.

Carl P. Simon is professor of mathematics, economics, complex systems, and public policy. He was the founding director of the U-M Center for the Study of Complex Systems and a former director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Ford School. His research centers on the theory and application of dynamical systems: from economic systems in search of equilibrium, to political systems in search of optimal policies, ecosystems responding to human interactions, and especially to the dynamics of the spread of contagious diseases. His current research centers on the spread of crime, the initiation of teen-age smoking, and health issues that affect SES. He was named the LSA Distinguished Senior Lecturer for 2007 and received the U-M Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in 2012. He teaches calculus at the Ford School, including “algebraic aerobics.” He received his PhD in mathematics from Northwestern University.

Jeffrey Smith is a professor of economics in the Department of Economics and a professor of public policy at the Ford School. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1996 and joined the University of Michigan faculty in 2005. Prior to coming to Michigan he was at the University of Maryland from 2001-2005 and the University of Western Ontario from 1994-2001. His research centers on methods for the evaluation of social programs such as job training for the disadvantaged. He has also written papers examining the labor market effects of university quality and the use of statistical treatment rules to assign persons to government programs.

Kevin Stange is an assistant professor of public policy. His research interests lie broadly in empirical labor and public economics, with a focus on education and health care. He is currently doing research on college pricing and tuition regulation, the effects of capital investment in K-12, vocational education, resource constraints in higher education, and the health care workforce. In the past, he has studied college dropout, college amenities, fertility timing, college quality, and the determinants of participation in social insurance programs. At the Ford School, Stange teaches masters courses on microeconomics, program evaluation, and higher education policy. He received undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and economics from MIT and his PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.



Mel Stephens is professor of economics, professor of public policy, and a faculty associate in the Population Studies Center and Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research. His research intersects labor economics, household consumption behavior, and aging and retirement issues. He is currently a member of the Academic Research Council of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and previously served as a member of the Committee on National Statistics Panel on Reviewing Redesign Options for the Consumer Expenditure Surveys. He received his BA in economics and mathematics from the University of Maryland and his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.

Betsey Stevenson is an associate professor of public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She is also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, a fellow of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich, and serves on the board of directors of the American Law and Economics Association. Betsey recently completed a two-year term as an appointed member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She served as the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor from 2010 to 2011. Stevenson is a labor economist whose research focuses on the impact of public policies on the labor market. Her research explores women’s labor market experiences, the economic forces shaping the modern family, and the potential value of subjective wellbeing data for public policy.

David Thacher is associate professor of public policy and urban planning. His research draws from philosophy, history, and the interpretive social sciences to develop and apply a humanistic approach to policy research. He is particularly interested in the use of case study and narrative analysis to clarify the ethical foundations of public policy. Most of his work has focused on criminal justice policy, where he has undertaken studies of order maintenance policing, the local police role in homeland security, community policing reform, the distribution of safety and security, and prisoner re-entry. Outside of criminal justice, he has also conducted research on urban planning and on adoption policy. He is currently studying the rise and evolution of the order maintenance role of the police, focusing on its origins during the rapid urbanization of the 19th century and its legal transformation during the 1960s and 1970s. David received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Denise Thal is a lecturer at the Ford School and will teach a course on public budgeting and financial planning in the winter 2016 semester. She is executive vice president for business operations for Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan. Previously, Thal served as vice president for business operations at The Henry Ford. Thal has a Master of Public and Private Management (now called an MBA) from the Yale School of Management and a Master of Philosophy in Economics from Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar.



Megan Tompkins-Stange is an assistant professor of public policy. Her research focuses on the role of private philanthropic foundations within public policy, and she is the author of a forth-coming volume (Harvard Education Press, 2016) that examines how four large foundations have influenced K-12 education policy in the US during the last decade. She teaches courses on “Public Management of Nonprofit Organizations,” “Values, Ethics, and Public Policy,” “Qualitative Methods for Public Policy,” and “Philanthropic Actors in the Public Arena.” She is co-director of the Nonprofit and Public Management Center. She received her PhD from Stanford University.

Maris A. Vinovskis is the Bentley Professor of History, professor of public policy, and a research professor at the Center for Political Studies in the Institute for Social Research. He has authored or co-authored ten books, the most recent being From a Nation at Risk to No Child Left Behind: National Education Goals and the Creation of Federal Education Policy as well as edited or co-edited seven books. Maris was the research advisor to the assistant secretary of the Office of Educa-tional Research and Improvement (OERI) in both the Bush and Clinton Administrations in 1992 and 1993. He was a member of the congressionally mandated independent review panel for the U.S. Department of Education for Goals 2000, as well as No Child Left Behind. Maris is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, the International Academy of Education, the American Educational Research Association, and former president of the History of Education Society. He received his PhD in history from Harvard University.

Susan Waltz is a professor of public policy. She is a specialist in human rights and international affairs with regional expertise on North Africa. Susan is author of Human Rights and Reform: Changing the Face of North African Politics (1995) and a series of articles on the historical origins of international human rights instruments, and she maintains the website Human Rights Advocacy and the History of International Human Rights Standards (humanrightshistory.umich.edu), hosted by the University of Michigan. For some fifteen years she was also involved in international efforts to promote an international Arms Trade Treaty (successfully concluded in 2013). From 1993-99 Susan served on Amnesty International’s International Executive Committee and since 2000 she has served terms on the national boards of the American Friends Service Committee and Amnesty International USA. She currently chairs an executive committee overseeing the work of the Quaker United Nations Office, New York. Susan received her PhD in international studies from the University of Denver.

Janet Weiss is the Mary C. Bromage Collegiate Professor at the Ross School of Business and professor of public policy at the Ford School. During the 2015-16 academic year, she is on sabbatical visiting at Georgetown University. Professor Weiss served as Vice Provost and Dean of the Rackham Graduate School from 2005-2015, as Associate Provost from 2003-2005, and before that was founder and director of the Nonprofit and Public Management Center. Her research interests focus on the management of public and nonprofit organizations, education reform, graduate education, and policies that affect young children. She received her PhD from Harvard University.



Marina v.N. Whitman is professor of business administration and public policy at the University of Michigan. From 1979 until 1992 she was an officer of the General Motors Corporation, first as vice president and chief economist and later as vice president and group executive for public affairs. Prior to her appointment at GM, Marina was a professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh. She served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1972-73, and has been an independent director of several major multinational corporations. Marina received a BA in govern-ment from Radcliffe College (now Harvard University) and her MA and PhD degrees in economics from Columbia University. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships, honors and awards, and holds honorary degrees from over twenty colleges and universities. Her research interests include manage-ment of international trade and investment, and the changing role of multinational corporations, including the evolving concept of global corporate social responsibility (CSR). The University of Michigan Press published her memoir, The Martian’s Daughter, in September 2012.

Gretchen Whitmer is a lecturer at the Ford School. She represented residents of East Lansing, Michigan in the state house from 2000-2006 and in the state senate from 2006-2014. In 2011, Whitmer was elected the Senate Democratic Leader and became the first woman to lead a caucus in the history of the Michigan Senate. Prior to serving in public office, she worked as an attorney in private practice with the firm Dickinson Wright in Lansing. Whitmer earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and went on to graduate magna cum laude with a Juris Doctor, both from Michigan State University.

Justin Wolfers is a professor of public policy at the Ford School, a professor of economics, and a member of the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Economic Advisers. Wolfers’ research interests include labor economics, macroeconomics, political economy, social policy, law and economics, and behavioral economics. Previously, Wolfers was an associate professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting professor at Princeton University. He is a research associate with the National Bureau for Economic Research, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institu-tion, a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a research affiliate with the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London, and an international research fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany. He is also a contributing columnist with the New York Times. Justin earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Sydney and his AM and PhD in economics from Harvard University.



Dean Yang is a professor of public policy and economics and co-director of the Ford School’s International Policy Center. His research is on the economic problems of developing countries. His specific areas of interest include: international migration, microfinance, health, corruption, and the economics of disasters. Dean teaches Ford School courses in the economics of develop-ing countries and in microeconomics, as well as a PhD course in development economics. He received his undergraduate and PhD degrees in economics from Harvard University.

Alford A. Young is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, with a joint appointment to the Department of African and African American Studies. He has pursued research on low-income, urban-based African Americans, employees at an automobile manufacturing plant, African American scholars and intellectuals, and the classroom-based experiences of higher-education faculty as they pertain to diversity and multiculturalism. He employs ethnographic interviewing as his primary data collection method. His objective in research on low-income African American men, his primary area of research, has been to argue for a renewed cultural sociology of the African American urban poor. Young received an MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago.



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