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.

Susan M. Collins, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy, cordially invites you and your fellow alumni to a Ford School alumni reception in conjunction with the annual conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM).

PANELISTS:
Susan Dynarski
Associate Professor of Education, School of Education; Associate Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Michael Flanagan
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michigan Department of Education

Brian Rowan
Burke A. Hinsdale Collegiate Professor, School of Education; Research Professor, Institute for Social Research

Tyrone Winfrey
Director, U-M Office of Undergraduate Admissions - Detroit Admissions Office and Vice-President, Detroit Board of Education

Deborah Loewenberg Ball
Dean of the School of Education, will be moderating the panel discussion

This community-wide event is co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, CLOSUP, the Institute for Social Research, the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, and the School of Education.

From the Publisher:

Vinny DeMarco might be a latter-day Don Quixote except that he tilts his lance at real obstacles to social justice: lobby-locked state legislatures and Congress, stonewalling the public will. And he makes impossible dreams come true. In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing.

The world's response to climate change is deeply flawed. The conventional wisdom on how to deal with climate change has failed and it's time to change course. To date, climate policies have been guided by targets and timetables for emissions reduction derived from various academic exercises. Such methods are both oblivious to and in violation of on-the-ground political and technological realities that serve as practical 'boundary conditions' for effective policy making. Until climate policies are designed with respect for these boundary conditions, failure is certain. Using nothing more than arithmetic and logical explanation, Dr. Pielke offers a comprehensive exploration of the problem and suggests a more practical resolution, including investment to create a more carbon-efficient economy and cost-efficient carbon-capture technologies.

'Our Patchwork Nation' is a comprehensive look at who we are as a country and where we are going using Patchwork Nation's 12 community types and examining what they mean for the the nation's Economic,
Political and Cultural future.

Our Patchwork Nation has been called, 'a captivating and at times surprising analysis, both rigorous and accessible' by Kirkus Reviews. The PBS NewsHour's Jim Lehrer, says Our Patchwork Nation is 'a book to keep always at your side and in your mind.' And the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne calls it 'a wonderful book that takes us way beyond red and blue - while also explaining the social, regional and economic roots of our partisan and ideological color wars.'

David R. Harris is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He leads the Office of Human Services Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).

The University of Michigan and the Ford School are planning a series of activities to welcome the class of 1960 back to Ann Arbor. The Reunion Weekend will offer alumni the chance to reconnect with old classmates and visit campus. Though much has changed since its time as the Institute for Public Administration, the Ford School of Public Policy is still committed to public policy research and education-come visit us and see how!

One of the U-M's major Peace Corps anniversary events will be a national symposium on the future of international service. The purposes of the day-long symposium are to propose and discuss new programmatic and policy initiatives; present research related to international volunteerism; share best practices in international volunteering programs; learn from voices, ideas and experiences from abroad; and, in the words of JFK, inspire students 'to serve the cause of peace' by volunteering overseas.

Marek Belka is President of the National Bank of Poland and former Director of the IMF's European Department. He was previously Under-Secretary General at the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe. Belka served as the Prime Minister of Poland from 2004-05, and was Poland's Deputy Prime Minister in 1997 and Minister of Finance from 2001-02.

Admission is free.

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan will host a special showing of Gerrymandering: The Movie. Writer/director Jeff Reichert will be present to talk about the film and answer questions. The movie addresses the issue of gerrymandering of political districts and the effects it has on the American political scene.

Prospective students interested in applying to the BA program (admit term Fall 2010) should plan to attend this information session. The BA Program Faculty Director, John Chamberlin, and the Ford School Admissions Staff will walk students through the application process and give an overview of the program.

José Zalaquett is one of Latin America's leading authorities on human rights. He is an international human rights lawyer, Professor at the University of Chile School of Law, and co-Director of its Human Rights Center.

He will speak about accountability for human rights abuses, drawing significantly on his own experiences in a wide range of countries, including Chile.

Ambassador Richard Solomon is President of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and has held this position since 1993. USIP provides the analysis, training, and tools to prevent and end conflicts; promotes stability; and professionalizes the field of peacebuilding. It is an independent, nonpartisan, national institution established and funded by Congress.

Ebonya Washington is the Henry Kohn Associate Professor of Economics at Yale University. She specializes in public finance and political economy with research interests in the interplay of race, gender and political representation; the behavioral motivations and consequences of political participation; and the processes through which low-income Americans meet their financial needs. Her work has appeared in journals including the American Economic Review and Quarterly Journal of Economics. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Matthew Springer, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education, Director of the National Center on Performance Incentives Vanderbilt University.

Richard Sclove, Founder and Senior Fellow of the Loka Institute

Commentator: Andrew Maynard, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Director of the Risk Science Center, University of Michigan

Co-Sponsors: Risk Science Center and the College of Engineering, University of Michigan

Free and open to the public.

Bill Ballenger - Editor and Publisher, Inside Michigan Politics

Organized by: Chuck Wilbur

Sponsored by: the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP); the Ford School of Public Policy; and the Association for Public Policy About Learning and Education (APPLE)

For more information: 734-647-4091

Panelists:
Alan Deardorff, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Department of Economics, University of Michigan
Susan M. Collins, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Mark B. Padilla, School of Public Health, University of Michigan
Susan Waltz, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

Lord John Alderdice is an appointed life Member of the British House of Lords of the British Parliament at Westminster. Recently the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords elected him as its new Convener (Chair) and in this position Lord Alderdice will provide an essential link between backbench Liberal Democrat peers and Liberal Democrats in Government. He is also a Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist at the Centre for Psychotherapy which he established in Belfast, United Kingdom. He is a Visiting Professor in Psychiatry and Joint Chairman of the Critical Incident Analysis Group at the University of Virginia.

Join host Bill Stafford (MPP '75) and your fellow Chicago area alumni at Bill's home in Evanston for a casual evening of conversation and networking.

Please RSVP to Amanda Grazioli (734/615-9645) by July 14th if you are able to attend.

Professor Chamberlin will discuss the MBA Oath, begun last year by students at the Harvard Business School, who hope that it might someday play the same role in business that the Hippocratic Oath plays in medicine. He will explore with us why it is more difficult to 'professionalize' politics and business, and offer some thoughts on how optimistic we ought to be about ongoing efforts to promote ethical behavior by policy makers and business executives.

Over 40 alumni and friends joined Susan M. Collins, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy, in New York City for a Ford School alumni reception.

Dean Collins and Susan E. McLaughlin (MPP '93, Senior Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY) kicked off the event with a presentation about the current financial crisis.

The Charge to the Class will be delivered by Michael Pan (MPP '99), Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice. As a member of the Ambassador's personal staff, he is responsible for providing advice on U.S. policies at the United Nations on human rights, peacekeeping, development, and management issues. During last year's meeting of the UN General Assembly, he served as the control officer for President Obama's first visit to the United Nations.

Prior to joining the Administration, he served on the Obama-Biden Transition Team and was the Deputy Director of the Washington Office of Human Rights Watch. From 2005 to 2008, he served as the First Officer for Human Rights in the Executive Office of the Secretary- General at the United Nations, where he was the primary staff aide to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for issues pertaining to human rights, transitional justice, and the rule of law. Also during his tenure at the United Nations, he served on the transition team for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and was a Political Advisor in the Office of Legal Affairs, specializing on the UN's assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia.

In 2007, the U.S. Army introduced its newest counterinsurgency weapon into Iraq and Afghanistan: civilian social scientists. As members of the Human Terrain System (HTS), the social scientists are embedded in combat brigades, where they provide commanders with research and advice. HTS has been controversial from the start; many social scientists attack it for melding academia and national security and for violating research ethics codes. In this talk, I historicize HTS within the broader context of the relationship between social science and national security policy since the 1950s. By examining the cases of the Special Operations Research Office and Project Camelot, I argue that HTS is simply the most recent example of the national security state's decades-old effort to use social knowledge to bureaucratically and technically manage complex problems of foreign and military policy.

Spring Preview is designed to give newly admitted students all the information they need to make a decision about pursuing a Masters in Public Policy here at the Ford School. Admitted students will meet with our faculty, staff, students, and alumni and get a chance to tour the campus and the city of Ann Arbor. Admitted students will receive specific event details with the decision letters they receive from the school in March.

Spring Preview is designed to give newly admitted students all the information they need to make a decision about pursuing a Masters in Public Policy here at the Ford School. Admitted students will meet with our faculty, staff, students, and alumni and get a chance to tour the campus and the city of Ann Arbor. Admitted students will receive specific event details with the decision letters they receive from the school in March.

Harold Ford, Jr. is Executive Vice Chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

From his bio:

Previously, Ford served Tennessee in the United States Congress for 10 years. Described by President Bill Clinton as 'the walking, living embodiment of where America ought to go in the 21st century,' Ford is now chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a news analyst for NBC and MSNBC, and a distinguished practitioner in residence at the Wagner School of Public Service at NYU.

'Winter Heating or Clean Air? Unintended Impacts of China's Huai River Policy.' Avraham Ebenstein, Hebrew University

It is stunningly difficult to transform the way a state government carries out a major function, but that is precisely what the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative (MPRI) has set out to do. The MPRI is an ambitious effort to improve public safety by reducing the likelihood that prisoners returning to communities will commit crimes. Based on two decades of national research, it focuses on identifying prisoner characteristics that predict recidivism and then addressing those risks both during and after incarceration. The initiative is transforming the Michigan Department of Corrections and the way in which it connects with communities. Widely regarded as one of the most effective reentry initiatives in the country, the MPRI is entering its seventh year of development and implementation and is operating statewide.

U-M will mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with a Teach-In to address critical issues affecting the planet and give voice to the university's new sustainability initiative.

'Our 40th Anniversary Earth Day Teach-In provides a good example of the University of Michigan's strong commitment to sustainability,' says Don Scavia, special counsel to the president on sustainability. 'Engaging the community and building public awareness at a local level is essential for positive progress toward sustainability on a global scale.'

Free and open to the public.

John A. Garcia is Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona and Visiting Research Professor and Director of the Resource Center for Minority Data at ICPSR. Professor Garcia's research interests include the acquisition and utilization of social capital for political engagement, coalition formation among minority communities; and the social construction of ethnic and racial identity and political involvement. His research has resulted in the participation in the National Chicano Survey (1979), the Latino National Political Survey (1989-90), and Latino National Survey (LNS) (2005-06).

Refreshments served.

Join us as we highlight and celebrate the intellectual achievements of graduate and undergraduate students at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

Ford School faculty will nominate students for inclusion, and the posters on display will represent a wide range of student work: from local issues to foreign policy, from social welfare policy to health care reform, from undergraduate work to dissertation research. Students will be on hand to describe their projects and answer questions.

Free and open to the public.

Panelists:
Thomas Buchmueller, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business
John J. H. (Joe) Schwarz, Former U.S. Representative and Visiting Lecturer, University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Marianne Udow-Phillips, Director, Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation (CHRT), located at the University of Michigan

Sponsored by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

Dr. Abdulaziz Othman Al-Twaijri, the Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), a part of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, will present a public lecture on the topic of Islamic International Institutions.

Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues, and his work has frequently entered into the design of both national and international educational policy. His research includes the impacts of teacher quality, high stakes accountability, and class size reduction on achievement and the role of cognitive skills in international growth and development. His pioneering analysis measuring teacher quality through student achievement forms the basis for current research into the value-added of teachers and schools.

Los Angeles area alumni gathered for a networking happy hour at BottleRock in downtown L.A.

Emissions trading policies initially relied on 'squatter's rights' principles granting emissions allowances to existing polluters for free. Recently, however, policy designers have largely abandoned this approach, requiring polluters to buy allowances from the public through auctions. Given the high financial stakes, this is a momentous shift. Given how skeptical experts and decision makers have been of the political viability of allowance auctions, and the opposition of powerful economic interests, it is also a remarkable political development. This presentation will document the surprising emergence of a new paradigm of public resource ownership, as well as offering some thoughts on why this paradigm suddenly gained political traction. The presentation will also explore an ongoing tension between two competing visions of public ownership. How this tension may be resolved remains a vital question for future emissions trading policies.

'Reinventing the Wheel: Why Broken Cities Stay Broken and New Ways Civil Rights Attorneys Can Fix Them.' Sponsored by the Michigan Journal of Race and Law.

The Ford School is bringing three faculty members to DC to share their insights on the latest developments in energy and environmental policy and to participate in the annual DC Trip Alumni Networking Reception.

New drugs and vaccines could save millions of lives in the developing world. But drug and vaccine development is expensive, and many of these badly needed health technologies promise markets too small to interest the for-profit pharmaceutical industry.

Scott E. Page is Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science and Economics and the Director of the Center for the Study of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that 'our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.' That insight rings especially true in the context of policy making, where diverse thoughts, experiences, beliefs and models prove critical to the process of constructing good policy. As policy problems grow more difficult and as the coupling of policy interactions produces greater complexity, the benefits of diversity become even more pronounced, provided that we agree on fundamental ends.

Yazier Henry of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Center for Afro-American and African Studies (CAAS) will present as part of a week-long conference hosted by the student organization, Ubuntu Alliance. The conference coincides with the University's Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium and is called 'Examining Ubuntu: an African Lens on Community, Reconciliation, and Human Rights.'

Free and open to the public.

Roland Fryer is the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the CEO of the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University.

The University of Michigan is pleased to announce the upcoming visit of John Beyrle, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. Ambassador Beyrle will deliver a public lecture titled 'U.S.-Russia Relations: Status of the 'Reset',' at the University of Michigan Alumni Center.