Ford100
Investing in the next century of citizens, public servants, and leaders
Our next century
T h e F o r d S c h oo l of P u b l i c P o l i c y
On the cusp of our second century, the Ford School’s vision is bold. To inspire and train exceptional leaders. To launch and lead game-changing research projects that transform how we address society’s most intractable challenges. To arm policy communities in the state of Michigan, in Washington, DC, and around the world with first-rate academic insights and discoveries. In our first century, the Ford School earned its reputation as a true pioneer in policy education. One hundred years ago, we launched the nation’s first systematic public service training program for local government leaders. Forty-five years ago, we built the nation’s first interdisciplinary, analytic public policy degree. In 1999, we proudly took the name of the University of Michigan’s favorite son, the 38th President of the United States of America. Today, we’re known around the world as an elite policy school housed at a world-class University. Your generosity—your investment— will power our proud next century of shaping leaders and tackling the toughest public challenges.
UNIT/SCHOOL TAGLINE
Inspiring leaders
T h e F o r d S c h oo l of P u b l i c P o l i c y
Students who choose the Ford School are diverse and gifted, active and engaged, creative and passionate, and committed to finding big-picture solutions to our world’s most difficult challenges. Our program teaches them to think analytically and across disciplines, appreciate context and culture, communicate clearly and effectively, and govern wisely. We bolster their networks and knowledge, offering rich and plentiful opportunities for them to address realworld policy challenges. Our collegial culture builds their confidence to lead. But the University of Michigan is being constrained financially from all sides. Over the last 20 years, funding for public education has experienced historic declines across the nation. And so too often, our students graduate with a debt burden that limits their choices, their potential. We must increase the number of students that we can help. We must grow our opportunities for applied learning and international study. Our vision is to provide the best policy education in the country to the most promising future leaders.
Our world needs pathfinders
A life transformed Madelynne Wager (BA ‘13), a first-
Ford School financial support enabled
generation college student from
Wager to undertake a prestigious DC-
the small town of Greenville, Mich.,
based fellowship with the Center for the
knew she wanted to help people.
Study of the Presidency and Congress,
She thought she could do that best one
where she began to research poverty
person at a time—by becoming a doctor.
and inequality in Africa.
But a summer medical internship in Venezuela left Wager troubled by the health disparities between rich and poor patients. Why are poor people getting so much sicker in the first place, she wondered, and if poverty makes you vulnerable, can a living wage improve your health? In her junior year at Michigan, Wager joined the Ford School, committed to finding systemic solutions to the challenges of inequality. She studied international trade and economic development.
Today, Wager works far from her hometown, pursuing innovative solutions to extreme global poverty as the Machel-Mandela Fellow at South Africa’s Brenthurst Foundation, a position she found through a Ford School visiting professor. “Young South African leaders have a real entrepreneurial spirit,” says Wager admiringly. “Perhaps ironically, they’ve taught me a lot about what it means to be an American.” « Madelynne Wager in Johannesburg, South Africa
Our world needs communicators
Rare and powerful Why did hundreds of New York City
Today, Love leads teams of analysts
firefighters lose their lives during
that investigate a wide variety of
9/11, even after police and other
Congressional concerns, recom-
first responders had been ordered
mending actionable solutions that
to evacuate the towers?
save U.S. taxpayer dollars, while
Latesha Love (MPP ‘02) reviewed the nation’s response to 9/11 with a team of policy analysts at the U.S.
improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government. “The Ford School taught me how
Government Accountability Office.
to conduct and write analysis that
Her findings: poorly designed
is balanced, objective, direct, and
wireless communications systems
above reproach,” says Love. “In DC,
didn’t allow firefighters, police,
a truly independent, unbiased
and paramedics to share crucial,
review is rare and it’s powerful.”
life-saving information during the disaster. Nearly all of Love’s recommendations have been implemented since her 2004 report, and every state in America now has a federally approved interoperable communications plan.
Latesha Love at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial
»
Game-changing discovery
T h e F o r d S c h oo l of P u b l i c P o l i c y
Poverty and economic development. Health and human security. Energy and the environment. Alongside their critical work as teachers and mentors, Ford School faculty members are nationally and internationally recognized experts in these and other vitally important policy areas. They use cutting-edge social science research methods, including demonstration trials, complex-adaptive systems approaches, mixed-methods studies, elite opinion surveys, and more. Michigan is a knowledge powerhouse, with a truly unique level of cooperation across schools and departments. With the time and resources required to launch and lead strategic research, our interdisciplinary and collaborative faculty make transformational discoveries—identifying new methods for fostering cooperation in the midst of intractable conflicts, slowing the spread of life-threatening diseases, and designing low-cost methods to reduce poverty in developing nations. We must recruit and retain thought-leaders in vitally important policy areas. We must invest in their most promising research ideas. Our vision is to unleash the creativity of the world’s most inventive faculty researchers, making it possible for them to tackle the world’s most pressing concerns.
Our world needs pioneers
Philanthropy’s power A single gift can make a difference, and gifts
Have charter schools improved student
to the Ford School yield impressive returns.
performance, college entry, and completion?
The Annenberg Professorship, established to honor the life and legacy of President Ford, enabled the Ford School to attract and retain Brian Jacob, a rising superstar in education policy. He then recruited another star, colleague Susan Dynarski. Together, they’ve made the Ford School a national powerhouse in education policy. Last year, Jacob and Dynarski launched the Education Policy Initiative, which now also includes four postdoctoral fellows, four professional staff members, and nearly two dozen student researchers. They’ve raised more than $9 million in external funding to produce and disseminate rigorous, policy-relevant research in education policy.
How effective is the growing reliance on online education for K-12 students? Can we design a smarter structure for repayment of federal student loans? How can schools screen out potentially ineffective teachers before they’re hired? How can we boost degree completion rates and post-graduation wages for low-income students? With deep expertise and a passion for directly engaging with decision-makers, Jacob and Dynarski lead a team poised to deliver groundbreaking answers to some of education’s most challenging questions. « Brian Jacob and Susan Dynarski (foreground, left and right) with the Education Policy Initiative team in Weill Hall
Our world needs innovators
Dramatic returns We’ve all heard about the power of
This is just one of eight microfinance
microlending, small business loans
innovations Yang is testing around the
that create paths out of poverty for
world with funding from the World
some of the world’s poorest people.
Bank, USAID, the Gates Foundation,
In impoverished countries with
and others.
no national identification system, however, microloans are tough to extend profitably—particularly to rural farmers with no credit history, or poor credit history—and few compelling incentives to repay.
Yang’s methodology—akin to pharmaceutical trials employed by the medical community—is the “gold standard” of social science research. While complicated to design and run, these types of studies
Through a carefully-designed random-
can clearly and precisely identify
ized field experiment with 3,000
the impact of low-cost innovations—
paprika farmers in Malawi, Dean Yang
innovations that can yield dramatic
found that fingerprinting borrowers
returns for the world’s most vulner-
on a laptop dramatically increases
able citizens.
their investment in paprika crops while doubling repayments—boosting lenders’ profits, enabling new loans to be made, spurring more development.
Dean Yang in Lilongwe, Malawi
»
Catalysts for change
T h e F o r d S c h oo l of P u b l i c P o l i c y
At the Ford School, brilliant researchers are seeking and finding actionable policy solutions. But knowing what could make a difference is not enough. Our vision is to move from understanding to action—not an easy task in a noisy world, a world where innovative solutions are too often thwarted by partisanship, spin, and gridlock. On critically important policy issues, our faculty have enriched understanding, built consensus, and mobilized action. They’ve grown the number of low-income students who attend college by simplifying a complex financial aid form. They’ve helped communities balance the economic and environmental issues raised by fracking—arming state and local government leaders with trustworthy information on policy options. And they’ve saved lives by working to regulate the trade of weapons to countries with poor human rights records. We must do more. We must invest in policy engagement, enabling the Ford School to put its strengths and relationships to work, cutting through the noise to catalyze real and lasting change in the world.
Our world needs problem-solvers
Lasting, local change When the Governor of Michigan invested
At the Ford School, Gerber oversees
$10 million to create 1,000 sustainable
teams of graduate students who
jobs for the long-term unemployed,
complete commissioned assignments
the Michigan Economic Development
for domestic and international
Corporation tapped distinguished
nonprofits, federal government
political scientist Elisabeth Gerber
agencies, city administrators, and
to measure the outcomes.
community development organizations.
When metro Detroit launched efforts
Gerber is deeply committed to strength-
to develop a more cohesive and acces-
ening the connections between rigorous
sible public transit system, the Regional
academic research, real-world policy
Transit Authority board chose Elisabeth
issues, and the student experience.
Gerber for a leadership role.
She inspires tomorrow’s policy leaders
And when the Kresge Foundation funded
while supporting today’s.
a major assessment of climate adaptation
ÂŤ Elisabeth Gerber at the Blake Transit Center
needs and initiatives in Great Lakes
in Ann Arbor
cities, Elisabeth Gerber was among those selected to support their efforts.
Our world needs collaborators
Cooperative conservation As Chief of the USDA’s Natural Resources
In regions prone to drought, Weller’s
Conservation Service, Jason Weller
team designs and installs more efficient
(MPP ‘99) oversees an agency of more
irrigation systems. In regions prone to
than 11,000 soil, water, and wildlife
flooding, they teach farmers how to
experts charged with conserving and
stabilize vulnerable soils. Instead of
restoring America’s privately-owned land.
regulating or issuing edicts, his team
“In the lower 48 states, there are 1.9 billion acres of land, and 1.4 billion of them are privately owned,” says Weller. “If you want to make a real difference in pro-
works hand in hand with farmers and ranchers to improve conservation practices while protecting the profitability and sustainability of farms.
tecting our nation’s natural resources,
In 2012 alone, the agency helped land-
you have to work collaboratively with
owners improve irrigation efficiency,
landowners.”
soil quality, and water quality on tens
Weller’s team does just that, but it’s not all about conservation, he says. It’s also about saving landowners money, time, and energy.
of millions of private acres—a powerful example of leveraging federal dollars to match and mobilize private investments in resource conservation. « Jason Weller on a farm in Maryland
T h e F o r d S c h oo l of P u b l i c P o l i c y
Your role
Society’s challenges are daunting. But they’re surmountable. From analysis to insight—and from insight to strategic, collaborative action: well-crafted public policy improves lives. So we celebrate the Ford School’s 100th anniversary, our pioneering accomplishments, and the impact of our alumni and faculty—but briefly. The future does not wait. We embrace the challenges and opportunities of the century ahead. This campaign is the moment when you can make an impact. A time when your participation can transform this great school and contribute to your legacy. Our world needs leaders. Our world needs solutions. Our world needs you. Come be a part of our next century.
Susan M. Collins Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy
UNIT/SCHOOL TAGLINE
ÂŤ
Dean Collins in Weill Hall
Ford100
“There may be no greater honor than to have a school bear your name. Such recognition means all the more when it comes from an institution that you love, and when it is dedicated—not to me personally—but to the cause of public service to which I have devoted most of my life.” Gerald R. Ford 1913-2006 On the occasion of the dedication of Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, October 13, 2006
38th President of the United States; AB ’35 and HLLD ’74, University of Michigan
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Degrees offered:
© 2013 Regents of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
• Master of Public Policy (MPP)
Joan and Sanford Weill Hall
• Master of Public Administration (MPA)
735 South State Street
• Dual master’s degrees with schools and
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091
departments across the University of Michigan
734 764 3490
• Joint PhDs with Economics, Political Science,
Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor Laurence B. Deitch, Bloomfield Hills Shauna Ryder Diggs, Grosse Pointe Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio
fordschool.umich.edu
or Sociology
Savitski Design
• Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy
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