Ford School Public Events

Rami Khouri is the Director of the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut as well as editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper. He is an internationally syndicated political columnist and author.

With the federal government on the sidelines of immigration reform, several states have passed legislation meant to control and deter unauthorized immigration. Arguably the most restrictive of such efforts is Arizona's 2007 Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA), which in part holds employers accountable for verifying worker eligibility. Dr. Raphael's lecture will assess the labor market effects of LAWA and whether LAWA has changed the demographic composition of Arizona's resident population.

Panelists:
Tonya Allen
Vice President, Skillman Foundation

Dan DeGrow
Superintendent, St. Clair County RESA and former Majority Leader, Michigan Senate

Lou Glazer
President, Michigan Future, Inc.

The United States and Global Sustainable Development: Politics, Policy, and Priorities

Jeffrey Sachs is one of the world's most influential development economists. He is the author of 'Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet' (2008) and 'The End of Poverty,' his seminal 2005 prescription for ending extreme poverty in the world by 2025.

Sujatha Jesudason is the founder and Executive Director of Generations Ahead (http://www.generations- ahead.org/), an organization that seeks to advance a social justice perspective in the public policy debates on genetic technologies. She began working at the intersection of race, reproduction, and genetics at the Center for Genetics and Society in 2004, and has been active as an organizer, advocate, and researcher in communities of color and on women's liberation issues for over 19 years. Her recent projects include developing a national collaborative campaign against sex selection, making the connections between past, present, and future eugenic technologies, and framing genetic justice as a human right. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, and earned her PhD in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley.

John D. Ciorciari, Assistant Professor of Public Policy will discuss his book, published September, 2010 by the Georgetown University Press. His research interests are international politics, law, and finance. From 2004-07, he served as a policy official in the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of International Affairs. Since 1999, he has been a legal advisor to the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which promotes historical memory and justice for the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime. He holds an A.B. and J.D. from Harvard and an M.Phil. and D.Phil. from Oxford, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

Panelists:
Martha Darling
Commission on Presidential Scholars; Class of 1977-1978 White House Fellow
Annie Maxwell
Ford School MPP '99; Class of 2009–2010 White House Fellow
Regent Katherine E. White
U-M Board of Regents; Class of 2001-2002 White House Fellow

Founded in 1964, the White House Fellows program is one of America's most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. The program gives promising young leaders 'first-hand, high-level experience in the workings of the Federal Government and increases their sense of participation in national affairs.' A panel of former White House Fellows will provide an overview of the program, share their experiences and discuss the application and selection process.

America's unmet challenges are huge: from energy policy to nuclear weapons, climate, health care (yes, still), a sagging infrastructure and a soaring deficit. Yet every one of them is eminently solvable. The answers are well known. So what explains, for example, thirty-five years of inaction on energy policy and even longer on health care? Why do we still approach nuclear weapons as though the Cold War continues when it ended 20 years ago? Is the policy gridlock that afflicts us the symptom of a vibrant and engaged - if polarized - society? Or is it the sign of an aging power that has lost the will to combat its problems? What can be done to recapture the will to act?

Pablo Suarez is the Associate Director of Programs, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and a consultant to the Environment Finance Group, United Nations Development Programme. His work as researcher and consultant investigates the integration of climate information into decision making for reducing vulnerability, both at community level and through national and global policies. He has consulted about climate change at Oxfam America; World Food Programme (WFP); Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); World Bank; ProVention Consortium; Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.