Alumni Board members

Alli Berry is a human capital consultant who supports colleges and universities with organizational change management, strategic communications, organization transformation, stakeholder engagement, HR, and IT strategy. Recent projects include COVID-19 response and making a transition to virtual teaching and learning. She is passionate about making the workplace an environment where employees can thrive through targeted well-being, DEIB, and HR strategies. She is known for leading and inspiring teams to drive change and achieve results.
Prior to Deloitte, Berry spent three years working at the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel at The University of Michigan, which sparked her passion for higher education. Berry graduated with honors from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan in 2019 with a minor in Gender, Race, and Nation through the Gender and Women's Studies department.

Brenda Duverce is a global sustainability / ESG analyst in Morgan Stanley’s equity research division. In this role, she conducts research on environmental, social, and governance factors and their impact on investments. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Duverce worked in management consulting for five years supporting federal government/public sector clients on a variety of business related challenges stemming from strategy and operations, business and operating model development, customer experience, and human capital management. She currently resides in Washington, DC.

Grace Evans Pedanou is the chief of staff at ONE Neighborhood Builders, a community development organization in Providence, RI. With nearly ten years of experience working in and in service to communities, she has led strategy and special projects across the philanthropic, nonprofit, and government sectors. She previously served as a government performance fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab and is an alum of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership’s Public Affairs Fellowship. In addition to her MPP from the Ford School, Pedanou holds a BS in mathematics and a BS in nonprofit management from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.

Eliza Erickson is director of innovation for the City of Philadelphia, where she develops and oversees initiatives that increase municipal government’s capacity for innovation and creative problem solving. Erickson manages a portfolio which includes the Innovation Academy, Lab and Fund—a trio of programs that support Philadelphia’s unique “people, place, process” approach to innovation. Erickson also spearheaded the development of innovation consulting, an initiative that leverages human centered design and other unique tools to help municipal departments and external stakeholders solve challenges and think about their work in new ways; in this capacity, she has facilitated over 100 workshops and has helped more than 50 clients address topics ranging from internal communication to process improvement to strategic planning.
In recognition of her work around growing and supporting Philadelphia’s innovation ecosystem, Erickson was named 2019 Innovator of the Year by Rad Girls, an organization that honors inspirational women leaders in the fields of technology, media, culture science and business.
Previously, Erickson worked at Project HOME, where she taught entrepreneurship and professional development to high school and college students from underserved communities. She studied history and religious studies at the University of Virginia, and subsequently received her MPP from the Ford School. Erickson has extensive experience in strategic planning, design thinking and civic engagement—but her true passion remains exploring Philadelphia with her husband, two kids, and rescue pit bull, Brew."

David Tannenbaum currently works as a litigation associate in the D.C. office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed. While in law school, Tannenbaum represented an individual seeking asylum through Georgetown’s Center for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and served as an intern with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division; Judge Reggie B. Walton, United States District Court for the District of Columbia; and the United States Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey.
Prior to law school, Tannenbaum was an associate with Schrayer & Associates. In this role, he worked with clients to advance their state and federal policy objectives in a variety of areas including gun violence prevention, foreign affairs, education, and public health. He received his JD from Georgetown University Law Center.

Janani Ramachandran Yates is the deputy budget director for the City of Detroit. She has led efforts to rebuild the City’s program and performance based budgeting apparatus and to create a more transparent and inclusive budget process. Previously, Yates was the associate budget director in the Office of Budget and Performance Management for the District of Columbia, where she led the strategic direction and management of Washington D.C.'s $9 billion capital budget. She also helped lead the District's financial response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including the strategic allocation of once-in-a-generation federal aid packages totaling nearly $4 billion. Yates also served as a senior financial analyst with Arlington County, VA and held budget and operations roles with the federal government at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She holds a MPP from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and a BA from Amherst College.

Edward H. Chu is the deputy regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 7 in Lenexa, Kansas. He has over 30 years of environmental and energy policy experience, passion for public service and sustainability, and commitment to protecting public health and the environment. Chu has served in senior executive positions with EPA headquarters and regions, implementing over 20 environmental statutes with 27 states and over 300 federally-recognized tribes. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Chu served as the deputy associate director for Green Jobs, Community Protection, and Climate Solutions at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In addition to his position at EPA, Chu is currently serving as special advisor for environment and climate solutions at Arizona State University and as distinguished practitioner at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. He has hiked in all 50 states and in 15 countries since leaving the Ford School and has run 11 marathons since 2016. This is Chu’s second time on the Alumni Board.

Tosha Downey is a senior program officer for state and local government relations for Tennessee at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to joining the foundation, she was vice president of advocacy for the Memphis Education Fund (MEF), a partner organization in Memphis’ effort to transform chronically underperforming schools. A native Memphian, Downey has spent more than 25 years leading work in charter school management, college access and recruitment, community engagement, and talent acquisition. She has also served as director of government affairs at the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago, IL, and worked for the Academy for Urban School Leadership, Comer Science & Education Foundation, and the Ryan Family Foundation. She is a graduate of Leadership Memphis, the New Memphis Institute’s Leadership Development Intensive, and Leadership Tennessee. She sits on the Board of Utmost U and the South City Development Corporation. In addition to her MPP from the Ford School, Downey earned her BA in Education at Clark Atlanta University and a JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Sam Geller is a senior analyst for electric regulatory strategy at Consumers Energy where he provides communications, strategic planning, and regulatory support for the company's electric generation and distribution divisions. Prior to this role, Geller was the budget analyst with the City of Detroit Mayor's Office. He has also served as a finance staffer on political campaigns for U.S. congressional, governor, and city council races. In 2017, Geller served as the Riecker Michigan Delegation Fellow with U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI).

Latesha Love-Grayer is a senior executive at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), serving as a director of International Affairs and Trade (IAT). She has over nineteen years of experience leading performance and forensic audits in a wide range of federal program and policy areas, on behalf of Congress. She currently oversees a portfolio examining international policy issues, such as international cybersecurity issues, terrorism and corruption in security assistance, and trade barriers, among others. Prior to IAT, Ms. Love-Grayer spent several years overseeing audits of domestic policy issues, such as consumer financial protection, Medicare, immigration, regulatory policies, and governmentwide efforts to improve the efficiency and fraud risk management of agencies. Her work has led to identifying millions of dollars in savings to federal programs as well as a range of changes to federal programs, policies, and legislation that have improved their performance, operations, and risk management. Her commitment to GAO has also included leading or contributing to internal initiatives to enhance the performance, accountability, diversity, culture, processes, and staff development within GAO. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Virginia State University and a master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, where she was also a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow.

Kevin Sweitzer is a state and local government consultant with Guidehouse, where he supports clients with the administration of large-scale government programs and strategy development that focuses on government effectiveness and service delivery. Sweitzer is passionate about transportation and urban policy. He previously interned with the U.S. Department of Transportation. While he was at the Ford School, Sweitzer was involved with several student organizations and groups and is eager to support BA students as they navigate the program and transition into the professional world. Sweitzer is originally from Lansing, MI and currently resides in Washington, DC.

Jackson Voss is the climate policy coordinator for the Alliance for Affordable, where he focuses on federal and state opportunities to transform Louisiana’s policy environment and better protect the state and its people from the worst effects of climate change. Born in New Orleans and raised in the south, Voss has also worked on political campaigns, for a regional economic development organization, in the U.S. Senate, and for a university-based public policy research center. Voss first came to the Ford School as a Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellow (JSI'13) while completing his degree in political science at Louisiana State University. He returned to the Ford School to complete his MPP and Certificate in Science, Technology, and Public Policy. He also served as the 2018 Riecker Michigan Delegation Fellow with U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI).

Bill Dorotinsky is a lead advisor in the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice, working on governance and development issues in East and Southern Africa. He played a lead role in creating the Governance Global Practice to integrate governance and institutional development work. Bill also led the World Bank’s global expert team on public sector performance, and managed public sector engagement with Europe and Central Asia and the EU where he diversified governance support beyond traditional lending to include trust fund and fee-based service modalities. He has also held positions as the International Monetary Fund deputy division chief, U.S. Department of Treasury resident public finance advisor in Hungary, Argentina and Croatia, and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In addition to his MPP, Bill also received his BA (’84) in economics and political science from U-M.

Julia Friedman is part of Meta's global economic public policy team where she covers trade and e-commerce policy. Prior to this role, she served as trade counsel for the Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives, focusing on Asia, intellectual property, digital trade, and the environment. Before joining Ways and Means, Friedman was an intellectual property negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). While at USTR, she also served in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, the Office of Congressional Affairs, and the Office of the Ambassador. She first moved to Washington, DC to work for Senator Debbie Stabenow. Inspired by President Obama’s speech at her University of Michigan graduation, she is deeply committed to public service and developing thoughtful, inclusive, and responsible public policy positions. In addition to being a proud Ford School graduate, Friedman is a graduate of Wayne State University Law School.

Naomi Goldberg is the deputy director and LGBTQ program director at the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), an LGBT think tank, leading policy work and work designed to understand and increase the capacity of the LGBT movement. Goldberg’s work at MAP includes co-authoring a series of reports and leading partnerships with progressive and LGBT organizations to increase the visibility of LGBT people and issues within progressive movements and to highlight the need for progressive policy change to advance LGBT equality. Prior to joining MAP, Goldberg completed a public policy fellowship at the Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law. In addition to being a proud Ford School graduate, she is also an alumna of Mount Holyoke College. Goldberg lives in Ann Arbor with her son and wife, who is on faculty at the University of Michigan.

Trevis Harrold works as a global public policy leader at the Dow Chemical Company in their government affairs division. He covers trade, human rights, and geopolitical issues. Previously, Harrold served as a foreign service officer specializing in political topics for the U.S. Department of State. He worked on the Coronavirus Task Force within the Department of State in Washington, DC, coordinating with Congress on the reparation of Americans overseas during the pandemic’s peak. Harrold has held diplomatic assignments at the U.S. Embassy Kingston, the U.S. Embassy Pristina, the U.S. Embassy Mexico City, and the Office of Bilateral Trade. Outside of the Department of State, he has worked at the Michigan House of Representatives, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate covering issues concerning the Finance Committee. In the private sector, he was as a government affairs specialist for the Dow Chemical Company (1st stint), where he covered tax and health issues. He also completed a government affairs fellowship at DTE Energy. In addition to his MPP at the Ford School, Harrold has a BA in political science, economics, and international business from Eastern Michigan University. He serves his country as a Military Intelligence Officer with the U.S. Army Reserve. Harrold is a certified CrossFit trainer/coach and loves playing basketball during his spare time.

Cortney Sanders currently serves as a senior advisor in the Office of the Acting Commissioner at the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) leading the agency’s equity efforts. Her current portfolio includes overseeing the agency’s equity efforts and outreach to help SSA operationalize equity as a fundamental element of its work and public service.   Prior to her appointment as senior advisor, Sanders was a senior policy analyst and senior manager at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities where she led the organization research efforts on equity and inclusion for the State Fiscal Policy Division. Her research included topics on education, criminal justice fines and fees, COVID19 equity, the Black Women Best economic framework, and a series of blogs on tax and budget issues. She was also an independent consultant and advisor for several universities, government entities, and policy organizations. Sanders has over a decade of years of experience in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as a subject matter, and began her career researching education, economic, and social policy.
As a student at the University of Texas at Austin, Sanders pioneered student efforts in writing an amicus brief for the Fisher v. University of Texas Supreme Court case with the Black Student Alliance as the Political Action Chair working with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Her efforts and organizing led to nation-wide support for the university and students of color attending Predominantly White Institutions. She was featured on several news outlets for her courageous work and awarded many awards for her student leadership. Sanders is a graduate of the University of Texas, Austin (BA) and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MPP). She is also a board member for the Polichic Engagement Fund Texas and University of Michigan Ford School Alumni Board.

Ivy Tran is the chief operating officer at Fathead. She has served multinational companies in the automotive, industrial products, pharmaceutical, software & technology, and consumer goods industries. She has experience providing strategic guidance to turnaround companies, digital transformation, global and domestic compliance documentation, IP planning/migration, domestic and international restructuring, and audit support. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master in Applied Economics focused on financial economics and a Master of Public Policy focused on statistical evaluation and policy analysis.

Karena Holmstrom’s policy focus is on nordic countries and comparative economic systems. She has interned with the Federal Railroad Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. While at the Ford School, she has participated in two Model NATO conferences and two Diplomacy Lab projects centered around Iceland’s economy and illicit drug precursors. Holmstrom is also involved in U-M’s Scandinavian Club, the Society of Women in Economics, Liberty in North Korea, and the Ford Undergraduate Council as the alumni board student representative. In addition to her Ford School degree, she holds a minor in economics. She looks forward to moving to Washington DC or abroad following graduation.

Chelsea Gaylord is focused on community and economic development policy that prioritizes equity and sustainability. She has used her time at the Ford School to conduct research on decarbonizing the built environment, economic development best practices in industrial heartland communities, and scaling neighborhood commercial real estate investment models as a tool for community wealth building. Prior to grad school, she served as senior economic development specialist for the City of Colorado Springs where she led small business and community investment initiatives, international business strategy, and COVID-19 response and recovery. She has also worked with various stage startups across the U.S. and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda (2015-2017) where she founded a nation-wide program to support young Ugandan entrepreneurs. In addition to her MPP, Gaylord is completing a graduate certificate in real estate development at the University of Michigan.

Rohan Dharan graduated with a BA from the Ford School in 2013, with a focus in education policy. After graduating, Rohan was a Teach for America corps member in Las Vegas where he taught 1st and 4th grade. He then spent a year in India teaching spoken English at a school in New Delhi through the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant scholarship. He has lived in DC for the past 7 years working with DC Public Schools in their central office. He currently serves as the manager for secondary advanced instruction, which primarily entails overseeing the district's Advanced Placement program. In his free time, Rohan loves to travel, try new restaurants, and go for long walks with his wife and dog.