Policy Topics

Economic mobility

Economic mobility

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Showing 1 - 30 of 49 results
Staff

Leonymae Aumentado

Senior Project Manager
Leonymae Aumentado is a senior project manager at Poverty Solutions, where she supports various research and strategic projects, including the Guaranteed Income to Grow Ann Arbor pilot program and the Detroit Home Repair Resource Guide and lead-safe ...
Aumentado Headshot
Staff

Amanda Nothaft

Director of Data & Analysis
Amanda Nothaft has extensive experience in data analysis and policy evaluation and has worked across multiple levels of government and a wide variety of policy stakeholders. Prior to joining Poverty Solutions, Nothaft worked on projects as diverse as...
Amanda Nothaft
Faculty Directors

Natasha Pilkauskas

Associate Faculty Director, Poverty Solutions; Professor of Public Policy
[email protected]
Natasha Pilkauskas is associate faculty director at Poverty Solutions and a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Her research considers how demographic, social safety net, and economic shi...
Natasha Pilkauskas
Faculty Directors

Kristin Seefeldt

Faculty Director of Poverty Solutions; Associate Professor of Social Work; Associate Professor of Public Policy; Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research
[email protected]
734-615-2113
Kristin S. Seefeldt’s primary research interests lie in exploring how low-income individuals understand their situations, particularly around issues related to work and economic well-being. Her most recent book, "Abandoned Families: Social Isolation ...
Kristin Seefeldt
Staff

Sam Stragand

Senior Program Manager, Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility
Sam Stragand is the senior program manager for the Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility at Poverty Solutions, where he works with community partners to conduct research and evaluation projects in Detroit. Prior to joining Poverty Solutions, Strag...
Sam Stragand
Faculty Affiliates

Pamela Aronson

Professor of Sociology, Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn
[email protected]
313-593-5259
Professor Aronson’s publications examine how social structures (such as collapsing economic institutions during the Great Recession, and gender, race and class inequalities) impact identities and the life course. Dr. Aronson conducted in-depth interv...
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Faculty Affiliates

Melissa Burch

Assistant Professor, Anthropology
[email protected]
Melissa Burch is an anthropologist whose research and community work focuses on the experiences of people with criminal convictions in the United States, with an emphasis on how social hierarchies and inequalities are maintained and reproduced throug...
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Faculty Affiliates

Sarah Burgard

Director, Population Studies Center; Professor of Sociology; Research Professor, Population Studies Center; Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology (by courtesy)
[email protected]
Sarah Burgard is a professor of sociology and, by courtesy, of epidemiology and public policy at the University of Michigan. She is also a research professor in and director of the Population Studies Center and a research affiliate in the Survey Rese...
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Faculty Affiliates

Luciana de Souza Leão

Assistant Professor of Sociology
[email protected]
Luciana de Souza Leão is an assistant professor in the sociology department at U-M. She is a political and comparative sociologist with broad interests in knowledge-making processes, social inequalities, and the state. Her three main areas of researc...
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Faculty Affiliates

William Elliott

Professor of Social Work; Director, Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Science
William Elliott III professor of Social Work and director of the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Science. He is also the founder of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion (AEDI). He received his Ph.D. and master’s in social w...
William Elliott III
Faculty Affiliates

Ivy Forsythe-Brown

Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
Forsythe-Brown’s research focuses on the incorporation of racial/ethnic minority groups into the U.S., Canada, and Britain. In particular, she is interested in the paths of upward social mobility and the overall well-being of these groups associated ...
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Faculty Affiliates

Terri Friedline

Professor of Social Work
Terri Friedline is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, faculty director within the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion, and research fellow at New America in Washington, DC. She conducts research to envision, redef...
Photo of Terri Friedline
Faculty Affiliates

Elisabeth Gerber

Jack L. Walker Jr. Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; Professor of Political Science (by courtesy), and Research Associate at the Center for Political Studies
Elisabeth Gerber’s poverty-related research focuses on urban, regional and metropolitan policy especially in the areas of: transportation and water policy; climate adaptation; and community, workforce, and economic development. Gerber is co-PI of the...
Elisabeth Gerber
Faculty Affiliates

Joe Grengs

Professor, Urban and Regional Planning
Joe Grengs’s research focuses on transportation planning and how metropolitan land-use patterns contribute to uneven economic development and social inequalities. His research argues for prioritizing transportation investments that improve access to ...
Joe Grengs
Faculty Affiliates

Pamela Jagger

Professor of Environment and Sustainability; Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research; Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center; Professor of Public Policy; Professor of Program in the Environment
Pamela Jagger is an applied political economist whose research focuses on the dynamics of poverty and environment interactions in low-income countries. She leads the interdisciplinary Forest Use, Energy, and Livelihoods (FUEL) Lab and is the director...
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Faculty Affiliates

Robert Manduca

Assistant Professor of Sociology; Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center; Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Robert Manduca is an assistant professor in U-M's Department of Sociology. His research asks why some people and some places are more economically prosperous than others. His recent work examines the role that national policy decisions play in determ...
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Faculty Affiliates

Katherine Michelmore

Associate Professor of Public Policy; Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research
Katherine Michelmore is an associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Michelmore is a leading scholar and educator on the social safety net, education policy, labor economics, and econ...
Katherine Michelmore
Faculty Affiliates

Sarah Miller

Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy; Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy; Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research.
Sarah Miller is an associate professor of business economics and public policy at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Miller's research interests are in health economics and, in particular, the short-term and long-te...
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Faculty Affiliates

Davon Norris

Assistant Professor of Organizational Studies and Sociology
Davon Norris is an economic sociologist who tries to understand how our tools for determining what is valuable, worthwhile, or good are implicated in patterns of inequality with an acute concern for racial inequality. Often, this means his work inves...
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Faculty Affiliates

Anant Nyshadham

Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy
Anant Nyshadham is an associate professor for business economics and public policy and a Buzz and Judy Newton Faculty Fellow at the University of Michigan. He is a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research affil...
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Faculty Affiliates

JJ Prescott

Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, Law School; Professor of Economics (courtesy); Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research; Co-Director, Empirical Legal Studies Center; Co-Director, Program in Law and Economics
JJ Prescott’s research interests revolve around criminal law, sentencing law and reform, employment law, and the dynamics of civil litigation, particularly settlement. He is trained in both law and economics, and much of his research is empirical in ...
JJ Prescott
Faculty Affiliates

Tony Reames

Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice; Associate Professor of Environment and Sustainability
Tony Reames conducts research in the emerging field of energy justice, which investigates fair and equitable access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy technology. His research employs energy analysis, geographic information systems (GIS), and ...
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Faculty Affiliates

Trina Shanks

Director, School of Social Work Community Engagement; Harol R. Johnson Collegiate Professor of Social Work; and Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Trina Shanks' research interests include the impact of poverty and wealth on child well-being; asset-building policy and practice across the life cycle; and community and economic development. She has been a research investigator for the Saving for E...
Trina Shanks
Faculty Affiliates

Pamela Smock

Professor of Sociology and Research Professor at the Population Studies Center
Pamela Smock is a professor of sociology and research professor at the Population Studies Center at U-M. Her scholarly interests lie at the intersection of demography and various axes of inequality. Her research focuses on changing family pattern...
Photo of Pamela Smock
Faculty Affiliates

Betsey Stevenson

Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Economics (by courtesy)
Betsey Stevenson is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. She is also a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a visiting associate professor of economics at the University of Sydne...
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Faculty Affiliates

Alford Young

University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor; Edgar G. Epps Collegiate Professor of Sociology; Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies and Professor of Public Policy; Associate Director, Center for Social Solutions
Alford Young, Jr. is the Edgar G. Epps Collegiate Professor of Sociology, Professor of AfroAmerican Studies, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and U-M Sociology Department Chair. He completed his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1996.  H...
Alford Young
In the Media

N.Y.C. Children May Get Up to $3,000 From City for College Accounts

Jun 1, 2026 New York Times
Plans such as NYC Kids Rise transform how children and families think about their expectations, their futures and their possibilities, said William Elliott III, a professor of social work at the University of Michigan and a leading researcher on coll...
William Elliott III