Ford School Public Events

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.

'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).

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.

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.

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).

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.