All Ford School master's students have the opportunity to work with a certified executive leadership coach—a growth activity that is typically reserved for senior leaders and executives much further along in their careers.
For Master of Public...
Tools to impact and influence others
“Leadership doesn’t come by title. You don’t have to be the head of an organization to have an impact.
Morela Hernandez, Ligia Ramirez de Reynolds Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and faculty director...
The Leadership Initiative hosts workshops and partners with units across campus on a variety of programs that take place outside of the classroom. Students gain insights from faculty, alumni, and each other, and have space to practice communicating...
The Ford School's Leadership Initiative develops and offers a growing suite of graduate and undergraduate student leadership courses, coaching, and extracurricular programs that build on and complement the school's excellent, rigorous curriculum....
Each year, approximately 20 percent of Ford School master’s students explore policy at the local or state levels through their required 10-week internship, and this summer was no different. Ford School faculty and staff helped students find...
As policy professionals, Ford School graduates will need to expertly convey new ideas, propose policy to higher ups, lead teams toward a shared goal, build support among factions, present data, and respond to questions ‘on the spot.’ Much like the...
This October, the Ford School’s Leadership Initiative and Career Services team hosted the second annual Deloitte Future of Work Institute (FoWI). Undergraduate students from the Ford School and the U-M Leadership Certificate program participated in...
On an overcast morning in late August, 38 continuing Ford School MPP students gathered in the Dixboro Woods to strategize, communicate, and achieve a shared objective. But it wasn’t to fulfill a consulting project or a problem set. It was part of...
Catherine Owsik is a postdoctoral fellow with the Ford School’s Leadership Initiative and the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School. She is an organizational psychologist who is passionate about assisting leaders and...
A former foreign minister to Mali, a leading educational economist, a tech entrepreneur who explores indigenous technoscience are among the outstanding new faculty that add depth to the Ford School and connect student education, rigorous academic...
This spring, the Ford School’s Leadership Initiative tapped into in-house talent to host a series of communication workshops. Former reporter and current MPA student Caroline Sweeney (MPA ‘23) led a workshop series to help her colleagues better...
Two Ford School students—Flor Azul Lorenzo (MPP ‘24) and Alejandro Villafuerte (MPA/MSW ‘23)—braved a chilly spring break in northern Michigan to build leadership skills at M-LEAD’s LeaderShape Institute. The scenic, community-driven Camp Michigania...
Many high-achieving employees describe feelings of self-doubt and not being intellectually capable to do their jobs. These feelings can be classified as “imposter syndrome” and it is a persistent issue among career women. A KPMG survey of 750 female...
In 2021, after an initial pilot test, the Ford School became the first policy school to offer all Master of Public Policy students the opportunity to work with a certified executive leadership coach during their required summer internship. In...
Passing the baton
A June gathering with faculty and staff celebrating Michael Barr’s first term as dean—and this photo with then-associate dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes—took on new meaning a couple of weeks later when the U.S. Senate confirmed Barr...
In an event on December 5, 2022, Ford School interim dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes told a group of Capitol Hill staffers and other DC professionals that a public policy education can lead to community impact.
“I'm a firm believer in the idea that...
The longer decisions take, the more discomfort they cause us. But in a new article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, Ford School professor Morela Hernandez argues that the more we sit in that discomfort or ambivalence, the better.
“Being...
The Ford School and Jennifer Niggemeier, associate director of the school’s Leadership Initiative, were awarded third prize in the Voinovich Public Innovation Challenge at the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA)...
Morela Hernandez, Ligia Ramirez de Reynolds Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and Faculty Director of the Leadership Initiative, has been named to the editorial advisory board of the MIT Sloan Management Review. The review's mission is to "seek...
This fall, the Ford School’s Leadership Initiative is launching a new program for graduate students to learn about different pathways to leadership from Ford School faculty in an intimate, informal setting.
Professor Morela Hernandez, director...
In corporate boardrooms, women often face backlash or negative career consequences when they are unable to display both warmth and competence — gendered societal expectations commonly referred to as the ‘double bind.’ Morela Hernandez, the Ligia...
At the 2022 Mackinac Policy Conference, Morela Hernandez, Ligia Ramirez de Reynolds Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and faculty director of the Ford School’s Leadership Initiative, addressed the polarization that seems to be permeating every...
What does U.S. gymnast Simone Biles’s decision to withdraw from the Olympics, J.C. Penny hiring Ellen DeGeneres, and recent vaccine mandates by some organizations have in common? The general public largely either lauded or chastised these decisions,...
By Olivia Bradish (BA ‘23)
Armed with her BA from Rice University, Morela Hernandez entered the corporate finance world. In a setting where nobody looked like her, she pondered a question that was both practical and intellectual: as she puts it,...
On September 23, the University of Michigan Board of Regents approved the appointment of Ford School professor Morela Hernandez as the newly established Ligia Ramirez de Reynolds Collegiate Professor of Public Policy for a five-year renewable term....
Ford School Dean Michael S. Barr and Professor Morela Hernandez, faculty director of the Leadership Initiative, reflected on the attributes and importance of good leadership as an essential asset for public policy practitioners during a summer...
What role can those who study management play to address systems of inequality? How should the professional community consider the ways in which organizations are designed or evolve to advantage some groups over others?
University of Michigan...
Ford School professor Morela Hernandez has been shortlisted for the Thinkers50 (T50) Distinguished Achievement Awards, one of eight people highlighted from around the world for their work around leadership. Hernandez is the faculty director of the...
With a $750,000 grant from the Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation, the Ford School will grow its innovative Leadership Initiative.
Launched as a pilot in the 2019-2020 academic year, the Ford School’s Leadership Initiative offers...
Earlier today, the University of Michigan Regents approved the appointment of Morela Hernandez as professor of public policy with tenure at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, effective August 31, 2021. She will also hold a collegiate chair...
