Ni hao/Hello alumni and friends of the University of Michigan,
Since President Mary Sue Coleman made her first visit to the PRC in 2005, U-M has hosted annual information sharing and networking events in support of further enriching relationships among and with its alumni and friends in Asia. Please do feel very welcome to join us for this year’s events as well as share this information with others in the U-M family. We look forward to meeting or seeing you again soon.
THE EVENTS AND SCHEDULE
In Taipei, Taiwan, on May 24, guests are invited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Rackham Graduate School and the announcement of the Chia-Lun Lo Fellowship Fund with special guests, Dr. Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur, ‘61AM, ‘72PhD, Provost and Executive Vice President Phil Hanlon, Rackham Dean Janet Weiss and AAUM President Steve Grafton. Invitation and reservation here.
In Seoul, Korea, on May 26, guests are invited enjoy conversation with Provost and Executive Vice President Phil Hanlon, AAUM President Steve Grafton, Rackham Graduate School Dean Janet Weiss and Ford School Dean Susan Collins. Invitation and reservation here.
In Hong Kong, on May 29, guests are invited to join the audience of an interview by Phoenix TV host, Sheng-Yang Chiang, ’99, of panelists Prof. Kenneth Lieberthal of the Brookings Institute, Dean Susan Collins of the Ford School, Prof. Mary Gallagher of the U-M Center for Chinese Studies, and Damian Ma, ’07, of The Atlantic. Invitation and reservation here.
In Shanghai, on May 31, guests are invited to join the audience of an interview by Prof. Mary Gallagher of the U-M Center for Chinese Studies of panelists Prof. Kenneth Lieberthal of the Brookings Institute, Dean Susan Collins of the Ford School, and Damian Ma, ’07, of The Atlantic. Invitation and reservation here.
2012 DELEGATION AND SPECIAL GUESTS
Sheng-Yang Chiang
Received his AB in communications from the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts in 1999 and worked in Silicon Valley before joining Phoenix TV in 2003. One of the most recognized personalities on Phoenix, Mr. Chiang is known for asking thought-provoking questions on two popular shows watched by millions of Chinese-speaking audience members around the world: 時事開講 (Dialogue) and 健康全時空 (Health Round the Clock). He also anchors 鳳凰午間特快 (Phoenix Noon Express) on a regular basis.
Susan M. Collins
Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a Professor of Public Policy and Economics. Before coming to Michigan, she was a professor of economics at Georgetown University and a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, where she retains a nonresident affiliation. Her area of expertise is international economics, including issues in both macroeconomics and trade. Her current work explores implications of increasing international economic integration, as well as growth experiences in industrial and developing countries. She recently co-authored studies comparing experiences in China and India, and examined challenges to growth in Puerto Rico. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Vice President of the Association for Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA). She served recently as an elected member of the American Economic Association (AEA) Executive Committee, having chaired the AEA Committee on the Status of Minority Groups during 1994-98. During 1989-90, she served as a senior staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Collins received her BA summa cum laude in Economics from Harvard University and her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mary Gallagher
Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, where she is also the Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, and a faculty associate at the Center for Comparative Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research. She received her Ph.D. in Politics in 2001 from Princeton University and her B.A. from Smith College in 1991. She was a foreign student in China in 1989 at Nanjing University. She also taught at the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing from 1996-1997. She was a Fulbright Research Scholar from 2003 to 2004 at East China University of Politics and Law in Shanghai, China. It was funded by the Fulbright Association and the National Science Foundation. Her research areas are Chinese politics, comparative politics of transitional and developing states, and law and society. The underlying question that drives her research in all of these areas is whether the development of markets is linked to the sequential development of democratic politics and legal rationality. Put simply, she is interested in the relationships between capitalism, law and democracy. Her empirical research in China is used to explore these larger theoretical questions. Professor Gallagher teaches classes on Chinese politics, comparative politics, and labor rights in the global economy. From 2005-2007 she was part of the public intellectual program for the National Committee on US-China Relations, a program that brought together academics and policy makers working on US-China relations.
Steve Grafton
President and CEO of the 100,000-member Alumni Association of the University of Michigan. He came to Michigan in 1994 from Mississippi State University, where he was executive director of its alumni association after serving on the staff of U.S. Sen. John Stennis, D-MS, as legislative assistant, field representative, and assistant press secretary. Grafton describes his responsibilities as “providing greater levels of service to Michigan alumni in order to involve them in greater levels of support to their university.” He maintains that, in order to accomplish both goals, the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan must be a dynamic organization, both willing and able to adapt to the changing needs of the University and its alumni. Grafton served on the board of trustees of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and chaired CASE’s Commission on Alumni Relations. He has also been a district director and faculty member for numerous CASE conferences, author of articles on alumni relations, and an editor of the Handbook of Institutional Advancement. Grafton is a charter member and former secretary for the Council of Alumni Association Executives (CAAE).
Philip J. Hanlon
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Michigan, a position he assumed on July 1, 2010. He is also Donald J. Lewis Professor of Mathematics and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor. A U-M faculty member since 1986, Dr. Hanlon has held administrative leadership positions for the past decade, serving as associate dean for planning and finance in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts from 2001-2004 and as vice-provost for academic and budgetary affairs from 2004-June 2010. In these positions, Dr. Hanlon has worked to develop and support academic programs, implement long-term cost savings, and increase transparency in the budgetary process. As vice provost he led campus-wide initiatives on interdisciplinary learning and teaching and established new policies and processes that are leading to more effective use of the University’s space and facilities. As a mathematician, Dr. Hanlon focuses on probability and combinatorics with applications to bioinformatics and theoretical computer science. He is an expert on topics such as computational genetics, cryptology, and card shuffling. An accomplished and dedicated teacher, Dr. Hanlon has continued to teach while holding administrative appointments. He also founded the Michigan Math and Science Scholars program, a summer program for high school students who have a strong interest in these fields. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Dr. Hanlon received his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He has received numerous awards for his mathematical research, including a Sloan Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Presidential Young Investigator Award. The University of Michigan has recognized his commitment to teaching with an Excellence in Education Award and a Thurnau Professorship.
Kenneth Lieberthal
Director of the John L. Thornton China Center and senior fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at Brookings. Lieberthal was a professor at the University of Michigan for 1983-2009. He has authored 24 books and monographs and over 70 articles, mostly dealing with China. He also served as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for Asia on the National Security Council from August 1998 to October 2000. His government responsibilities encompassed U.S. policy toward Northeast and East Asia. His latest book, Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy (co-authored with Martin Indyk and Michael O’Hanlon), was published by the Brookings Press in March 2012.
Damien Ma
A China analyst at Eurasia Group. He writes on Chinese energy policies and climate change, politics, innovation, U.S.-China relations, social policies, and Internet policies, among other topics. He has written for Slate, The New Republic, and Forbes.
Dr. Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur (PhD History 1972; AM History 1961)
Upshur was a Barbour Scholar as was her mother before her, Djang Wei-Djen. Both of her parents were well established academics in China and then Taiwan. Her father, Chia-Lun Lo, was Dean of the Central Political School, later National Cheng-chih University. He then served as president of National Central University. He also served as the Chinese ambassador to India from 1947-49 and, in Taiwan was elected to the National Assembly. Her mother, Djang Wei-Djen, may also have been elected to the National Assembly in Taiwan. In 2005, Jiu-Hwa gifted several Chinese art objects to UMMA. In addition to her own appreciation of Chinese art, both of her parents were connoisseurs and collectors of classical Chinese paintings. She retired after 35 years in 2007 as professor of History at Eastern Michigan University; was honored with emeritus status at EMU.
Janet A. Weiss
Rackham Graduate School and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Dean Weiss is the Mary C. Bromage Collegiate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Public Policy. She holds faculty appointments in the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She has been on the faculty of the University of Michigan since 1983. Appointed Associate Provost for Academic Affairs in May 2002, Professor Weiss has been responsible for a broad range of academic and faculty issues, including faculty promotion and tenure, family friendly policies affecting faculty, facilities planning, strategic planning, and oversight of museums and libraries. She was Associate Dean of the Business School between 1992 and 1997, with responsibility for the doctoral program and research, and before that served as Associate Director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies at Michigan (before it became the School of Public Policy). Before joining the University of Michigan faculty, she was on the faculty of the School of Organization and Management at Yale University. She received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Psychology and Social Relations and a B.A. from Yale University, where she was in the first class of women at Yale. She has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Between 1998 and 2002, Professor Weiss founded and directed the Nonprofit and Public Management Center at the University of Michigan, a collaborative effort of the Schools of Business, Public Policy, and Social Work. She has published over fifty papers and chapters in academic journals on the roles of information and ideas in the policy process. She has also done extensive research on the challenges of public management, and the interplay between policy design and the management of public programs. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Mental Health, and the National Institute of Education.
