Center for Social Solutions 24/25

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SOLUTIONS

ANNUAL REPORT

2024-2025

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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DIVERSITY AND DEMOCRACY

SLAVERY AND ITS AFTERMATH

WATER EQUITY AND SECURITY

Community dialogues on big and small stages

Reasons and meanings for repair

An international approach to resilience

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THE FUTURE OF WORK

STAFF HIGHLIGHTS

GET INVOLVED

Looking at the past to inform the future for workers

Accolades for our incredible staff and students

Learn more about how you can support our efforts

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dear Friends, It has been another successful year for those of us working in the Center for Social Solutions. We published new volumes in the Our Compelling Interests book series and held OCI public events in New York City and Washington, D.C. We completed the Academic Leadership Institute's fourth summer residential program as well as started a new project entitled RISE, which addresses the prediction and mitigation of flooding around the world. And, we are in the final stages of completing the multi-year Crafting Democratic Futures research project.

The Center, founded in 2018, focused on expansion and development during its first five years by expanding our team and existing projects, and identifying and tackling new problems in our four focus areas. Now, with a sharpened focus, a dozen permanent staff members, and a handful of core projects, our goal is to build on those initial efforts and products and to develop transformational solutions in partnership with the communities that we serve.

Although the rapidly changing landscape, both at the university and around the country, poses new challenges, we are holding true to our core values and mission to create a world without social injustice. We are actively seeking financial, research, and thought partners to widen our impact and assist with common goals. We hope we might count on your support, if our interests match your priorities.

Sincerely,

Earl Lewis, Founding Director

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DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY Research has demonstrated that diversity in education, business, and technology can be leveraged in strengthening our democracy. This initiative amplifies the stories of historically oppressed and traditionally excluded voices by convening practitioners, experts, and thinkers in a variety of spaces and publications.

OUR COMPELLING INTERESTS EVENT:

WHAT MIGHT BE

On March 18th, 2025, the Our Compelling Interests (OCI) book series celebrated the release of its sixth installment, What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions by Susan Sturm at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. The book aims to explain the importance of embedding antiracist practices in our spaces and tips for leaders of every level to encourage full participation from people of all backgrounds.

Nancy Cantor, president of Hunter College and cofounder of the OCI book series, welcomed the audience and highlighted the importance of conversations like these during a time when the value of diversity in higher education is up for debate.

Susan Sturm introduces her new book and the ideals of full participation to the audience.

The panel featured What Might Be author Susan Sturm, who is also the George M. Jaffin Professor of Law and Social Responsibility and founder of the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia University, in conversation with Freeman Hrabowski, president emeritus of The University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The conversation was moderated by Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education (ACE).

The discussion, co-hosted by ACE, centered on higher education institutions and what antiracist leadership can look like through the lens of a student, professor, or institutional leader. When the panel concluded, a lively Q&A session allowed audience members to ask the panel for advice on how to proceed pushing forward antiracist strategies amidst the nationwide institutional crackdowns on campus protests and eradication of DEI programs.

Pictured Left to Right: Earl Lewis, Ted Mitchell, Susan Sturm, Nancy Cantor, and Freeman Hrabowski

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ALI cohort members, faculty, and leadership gather for a photo at the end of the 2024 Residential Program.

2024 ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM IN SWARTHMORE, PENNSYLVANIA From July 28 – August 1, the Academic Leadership Institute (ALI) hosted its fourth annual Residential Program.

The Academic Leadership Institute was founded by Dr. Earl Lewis and Dr. Dwight A. McBride, in a partnership between the University of Michigan and Washington University in St. Louis, to build a community of higher education professionals on track to becoming future presidents and provosts that share a commitment to creating equal opportunities for the diverse groups of people within their institutions. The program helps colleagues utilize ALI’s growing network of current and former presidents and provosts who can provide a forum for more intentional and scalable mentoring of the next generation of such leaders. The cornerstone of this Institute is the annual residential program held at Swarthmore College.

Twenty-one higher education leaders, hailing from a wide range of institutions across the country, were selected to take part in this year’s residential program.

The ALI faculty was composed of an intergenerational group of higher education leaders, including many returning alumni of past residential programs.

The five-day program consisted of workshops, panels, and extensive discussions about realities of assuming a president or provost position, how to navigate searches, contracts, and threats to the fields of research and higher education. The program began with cohort members completing the Birkman Test of Social Comprehension, which provided insights into their work behavior, motivations, and how they might interact in a team setting.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAURA B. MCCONNELL

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The discussions were broken up by intermittent topicguided meals and stretching sessions. While each formal session had a lasting impact on everyone in the room, many cohort members expressed that they also found unexpected and valuable lessons in more informal conversations with faculty members around the breakfast tables, during cocktail hour, or within the peer-to-peer email group that they are added to immediately upon entering the program.

For the first time, several of the ALI faculty, leadership, and cohort were given the opportunity to record video testimonials of their experience in real time, creating capsules about the importance of the program for future generations of higher education leaders. You can watch the ongoing series using the QR code on this page.

Scan this QR code to watch testimonials from our ALI participants!

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

NICHOLAS LEMANN

One of the newest titles in the Our Compelling Interests series, Higher Admissions: The Rise and Fall of Standardized Testing by Nicholas Lemann, takes a deep dive into one of higher education’s most contested practices—standardized college entrance exams.

The book arrived as several high-profile institutions began to reintroduce mandatory SAT or ACT scores, a move the author says demands careful consideration as it has historically reinforced socioeconomic and racial disparities in the admissions process.

“Thus far, fewer than two dozen institutions have returned to required standardized testing,” said Lemann, who is also a staff writer at The New Yorker and Dean Emeritus at Columbia Journalism School.

“Tests improve an institution’s ability to predict an applicant’s firstyear grades. Increasing reliance on test scores in admissions also increases the correlation between parental background factors and the composition of an entering class.”

The book argues that while test scores offer certain predictive value, they can also reinforce inequities and diminish the benefits of diversity on campus. “For people who are fortunate enough to attend highly selective colleges, their undergraduate class will likely be the most diverse environment of their lives,” the author explains. “This diversity enriches the intellectual life of the institution and the educational experience of every student.”

Chosen for the Our Compelling Interests series because of its relevance to debates about equity and opportunity, Higher Admissions traces the controversial history of standardized testing, from its origins as a tool to expand access to its role in decades of litigation over affirmative action.

“Introduced on the promise that it would make student bodies more diverse, it may in fact make them less diverse,” states Lemann. With court rulings, policy shifts, and institutional priorities all in flux, Higher Admissions offers essential context for educators, policymakers, and the public to understand what’s at stake when testing requirements change.

GENDER FLUIDITY

REFRAMING THE FUTURE OF RESEARCH ON BLACK MEN AND BOYS

The Scholars Network on Masculinity and the Wellbeing of AfricanAmerican Men was founded by CSS Associate Director Alford Young, Jr. to galvanize a multi-disciplinary group of scholars whose research aspires to promote healthier and more inclusive understandings of Black masculinities. This year, the network gathered online to discuss gender fluidity and how modern and historical understandings of gender may reframe present-day research on Black men and boys.

The discussion, led by Dr. Young, featured Tanya L. Saunders, associate professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Dr. Saunders is a sociologist and cultural studies scholar who is interested in the ways in which the African Diaspora throughout the Americas uses the arts as a tool for social change, specifically through decolonizing systems of thinking and knowing in the Americas.

Saunders encouraged members of the network to think globally about the relationship between race, gender, and sexuality. They posed the question: what would happen if Black folks in the United States looked to Latin America and the Caribbean to understand gender and sexuality? In past and present work, Saunders documents how Brazilian artists and scholars redefine and remember a plurality of physical embodiments that enslaved Africans brought with them to the Americas during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Pushing back against a Eurocentric approach that deploys binary, gender categories, Saunders argues that by looking beyond U.S. borders, scholars of Black masculinity can open up new concepts and epistemologies of embodied expression that are not constrained by categories of gender specific to particular histories and cultures. As a complement to a global approach to studying race, gender, and sexuality, attendees also reflected on the ways that gender fluidity was rejected and embraced within domestic Black cultural spheres.

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INFORMING VOTER PARTICIPATION

FOR DETROIT CITIZENS

On June 24, 2025, The Center for Social Solutions co-sponsored “WHY SHOULD I VOTE?,” an event put on by The Community Health Council for Justice-Involved/Impacted Residents to inform Detroit residents about their rights and responsibilities when it comes to local and national elections. Other event sponsors included Aetna and Goodwill’s Flip the Script. CSS Associate Director Alford Young, Jr. leads the Council's research and analysis efforts and contributed to the planning of the event, which was hosted at the University of Michigan Detroit Center.

“THE MISSION HAS TO BE BIGGER THAN ONE'S OWN SELF” -Marvin Cotton, Jr., Founder of Better Not Broken

The day featured keynote speakers as well as a panel discussion on voting access. On stage, the discussion was moderated by Gregory Anderson, vice president of Workforce Development for Goodwill of Greater Detroit. The panel included Darryl Woods, Jr., vice chair of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, Leah Mills-Chapman, founder and CEO of NTervene, and Marvin Cotton, Jr., founder of Better Not Broken.

“This event was not an endorsement of any candidates nor any political positions, but rather an opportunity to discuss the importance of voting and political involvement more generally.” stated Dr. Young. “While open to all city residents, the target audience are returning citizens. After release from penal institutions they are often less aware of their rights and abilities to engage politically. This is an example of the Center’s dedication to community engagement and collective problem solving.”

Pictured Left to Right: Darryl Woods Jr., Leah Mills-Chapman, and Gregory Anderson

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SLAVERY & ITS AFTERMATH This initiative looks at culturally sensitive, placed-based solutions to racial inequities and the legacy of chattel slavery. We connect scholars, organizations, and institutions doing work on racial, social, and economic injustice and their current effects on American life while simultaneously seeking methods of repair.

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Carnegie Mellon University

Connecticut College

The team at Carnegie Mellon University brought together the work of college and university humanities scholars with community-based organizations and local Pittsburgh activists to produce a manuscript that captures a comprehensive new history of African American experience in Pittsburgh from its inception during the late colonial era to the contemporary period.

Using oral histories as well as archival research, this project documents past and present racial injustices alongside the social and political movements to combat inequality. Further, this project illuminated the complex role that colleges and universities have historically played in movements for racial justice.

This new history will ultimately serve as the foundation for crafting reparations policy recommendations at all levels of government.

This project explored the sharing of racial identity narratives and how they may be central to individual and collective efforts to heal from racism and write the next chapter of our collective history. The team at Connecticut College empowered both younger and older members of the New London community, not only to tell their personal stories, but to become skilled interviewers with the ability to gather stories of struggle and triumph against the legacy of racism.

Further, the team sought to serve as their allies in communicating these stories in ways that can contribute to more informed school curricula and reparative civic action. Based on the recommended focus of community partners, the project particularly emphasized the legacy of redlining and segregation in New London, especially in light of recent redevelopment plans and initiatives in the city.

interest and share the results with their local communities. CIC identified four participating colleges: Concordia College, Connecticut College, Wesleyan College, and Wofford College.

Emory University Utilizing an expansive network of community contacts, the Emory team worked with Black Atlanta residents to uncover the stories, metrics, and costs of slavery, Jim Crow, and non-post-racial America for African Americans in the city. The project focused on three areas: education, housing, and economics and entrepreneurship. To develop reparations plans for healing in these three areas, the team relied on oral testimonies collected during community listening sessions to discern from those directly impacted by policies designed to deny literacy, housing, voting rights, land, and other resources.

Concordia College The Concordia CDF team engaged in research and restorative action for Indigenous people in western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, home to Native/Indigenous communities of Anishinaabeg/Ojibwe and Dakota Sioux heritage.

This project confronted the realities of systemic racism that impact the education, economic opportunities, and lives of Native American/Indigenous peoples and people of color.

Specifically, the team focused on the intergenerational trauma induced by the longer history of mandatory-attendance boarding schools, strategies to repair trust given this history, and language learning as a form of reparations.

Council of Independent Colleges

Rutgers University-Newark

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) drew on participants in the Diversity, Civility, and the Liberal Arts Institutes and finalists in the Legacies of American Slavery network, who have already exhibited a commitment to racial equity on campus and in their communities and who have demonstrated effective, mutually beneficial community engagement. CIC also considered participants in CIC’s Humanities Research for the Public Good program, in which institutional teams partner with community organizations—such as museums, libraries, and houses of worship—to foster undergraduate research on topics of regional

This project is indebted to the long history of community activism present in the city of Newark.

The team continued to build on this rich local history by coordinating resources both on campus and in the broader Newark community to research local history of racial harms and craft methods of repair. The team worked in collaboration with two community-based organizations, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and the Newark Community Development Network, to co-create facilitated community discussions. These community dialogues, alongside the research conducted by scholars and students at RU-N,

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CRAFTING DEMOCRATIC FUTURES THREE YEAR RETROSPECT

Crafting Democratic Futures (CDF) was a three-year project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which facilitated community-based reparations across the country.

Housed at the University of Michigan Center for Social Solutions, the nationwide effort was made possible by 9 partner institutions who worked with their local communities to find the best mediums and methods to administer repair for historical harms. The findings from each of these teams will be available to the public in a forthcoming report produced by Michigan Publishing.

This project served as an opportunity to produce a formal platform for the study of the historical and contemporary impact of enslavement and land dispossession on residents in the state of Georgia, with particular emphasis on the Port WentworthSavannah area. Through community engagement, in-depth study, analysis and interrogation of scholarship, oral history collection, and curation, the Spelman team aimed to yield a body of knowledge that will inform public-facing strategies for reparations. More specifically, this project supported the work of the Quarterman-Keller Scholars Program, a group of student scholars who, guided by faculty mentorship, will engage with antiracist research, policy, and activism. These scholars were also trained to collect oral histories from descendants of formerly slave-owning and enslaved families in the Port Wentworth-Savannah area.

the possibility of social and economic reparations for residents in Washtenaw County. The Community Fellow in Detroit, Lauren Hood, served as Chair of the Detroit City Planning Commission and worked in that capacity to help organize the city’s reparations task force. For CDF, she developed a project that considered the historical impact of the construction of I-375 on residents in the historic Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods and the contemporary impact of the city’s overtaxation of Detroit homeowners from 2010-2016 on home foreclosure rates in the city. Using these two case studies, she then identified potential forms of repair that highlight the voices of those most impacted by these policies. The Community Fellow in Flint, Asa Zuccaro, developed a project that considers the social determinants of health— childhood experiences, housing, education, social support, family income, employment, communities, and access to healthcare—for those communities harmed by policies and practices implemented during the following time periods: chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration.

University of Michigan

Wesleyan College

The Crafting Democratic Futures project at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor focused on three geographic areas in southeast Michigan: Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, Detroit, and Flint. The U-M team worked with Community Fellows in each of these areas to present unique case studies which will identify historical harms and inform potential solutions in each location. The Community Fellow for Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, Alize Asberry-Payne, led a county-wide exploratory committee that considered

Through a series of facilitated, collaborative discussions, the Wesleyan Center for Social and Racial Equity, in collaboration with the Tubman Museum, worked with community members across a variety of areas to identify areas of reparative justice that most require Macon, Georgia’s attention.

This project extended from the understanding that fuller narratives of Macon’s regional history and Wesleyan’s institutional history are necessary first steps in developing further frameworks for

formed the basis of proposed reparative solutions in Newark.

Spelman College

reparative justice. In addition to hosting community-led listening circles, the Wesleyan team also hosted public digitization days for Macon community members to contribute oral testimonies and artifacts to a digital archive of regional history, make hidden regional histories visible through public art and monument projects, and develop infrastructure to support anti-racist pedagogy on the Wesleyan campus and in the wider Macon K-12 educational system.

Wofford College Wofford College and the wider Spartanburg community collaborated to develop researchinformed plans for racial reparations solutions. The project’s community-campus inclusive research teams focused on historic and ongoing harms against descendants of enslaved African persons and their communities. Specifically, the team at Wofford College examined what has been lost as a result of centuries of enslavement, campaigns of displacement, destruction of neighborhoods and cultural/historical sites, systemic barriers to wealth, acts of terrorism, and systemic and structural racism. In addition to acknowledging what has been lost, this collaborative effort began the work of transforming Spartanburg, South Carolina’s historical narrative to reflect Black citizens’ experiences more accurately and to recognize their heretofore unacknowledged contributions to Spartanburg.

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN DETROIT CLIMATE RESILIENCE FOR ALL In early 2025, CSS initiated a study on the intersection of “green” infrastructure, land use, and displacement in Detroit, supported by a $30K grant from the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). This project analyzes complex relationships among green infrastructure investments - such as greenways, permeable paving, and green roofs - and real estate precarity, neighborhood change, and gentrification, particularly in historically disinvested Detroit neighborhoods.

Our research adapts a Green Gentrification Vulnerability Index (GGVI), first developed for New York City, to reflect the economic and social environments of Detroit. Once validated in collaboration with local communities, this index will help identify where green infrastructure investments may unintentionally contribute to displacement pressures.

This project also involves digitizing and analyzing historical data from Detroit and broader Wayne County to document economic trends driven by redevelopment policies like urban renewal and opportunity zones, and more recent dynamics such as foreign real estate investment, land banking, and persistent vacancies.

Looking ahead, the groundwork laid by this project will inform the development of a scalable, community-informed framework that connects past and present spatial patterns of disinvestment and economic precarity with emerging green infrastructure investment. Our goal is to provide actionable insights that enable Detroit and other cities pursue climate adaptation strategies without exacerbating economic and social vulnerabilities.

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RESEARCHING REPARATIONS AND PUBLIC OPINION NEW STUDY FOR THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION Researchers from the Center for Social Solutions Crafting Democratic Futures project, in collaboration with the Black Truth Project and Detroit Metro Area Communities Study, recently published their research on how awareness of racial inequality interacts with Americans’ support of reparations policies at the local and national levels. The new article, “Crafting Democratic Futures: Understanding Political Conditions and Racialized Attitudes Toward Black Reparations,” appears in the June 2024 RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences.

The article draws on data from a survey in Detroit, as well as a national survey, to understand local and national attitudes toward reparations policies.

The lead author of this research is Kamri Hudgins, CSS research associate and PhD candidate in Political Science, whose own doctoral research relates to the focus of the new article. “My research focuses on how trauma influences African American political behavior. Understanding how individuals respond to questions of redress about the harm they've endured is a great way to understand how individuals reconcile with their trauma at the group level.” For example, findings from the article’s research in Detroit highlight strong support from Black Detroiters for reparations,

but lower support from White Detroiters who have not historically experienced the harms that reparations policies target.

However, respondents who acknowledged the legacy of racism were significantly more likely to support reparations policies.

Furthermore, when compared to national levels, support for reparations in Detroit is relatively high, with a majority of Detroiters supporting reparations of some kind to Black Americans. Hudgins notes that the collaboration between research teams was an important factor in showcasing this variation between local and national opinions regarding reparations, “because these two teams brought together data that told a more comprehensive story.”

While progress is important, Hudgins reminds us that

“reparations is not a simple onesize-fits-all process.”

Understanding political attitudes toward reparations is an integral step in working to achieve racial equity and justice, as this research demonstrates by capturing the nuance of reparations support between various groups. “So much of the political landscape is driven by public opinion,” says Hudgins.

“Being able to understand the way people think and feel about pressing issues is an important step in shifting opinion in support of racially equitable programs and policies. It is our hope that this article illuminates the differences between local and national reparations attitudes.”

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WATER EQUITY & SECURITY \ Natural disasters, increasing rapidly in severity and frequency due to climate change, do not discriminate geographically, but their effects often do. We work with communities to develop equitable solutions to disaster responses in housing, infrastructure, health, and more.

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FILTER FIRST: BUILDING SYSTEMS OF TRUST

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rounded in the goals of Michigan’s Filter First legislation, our Community KIDS (Knowledge-Inspired Decisions with Schools) project co-creates solutions to ensure safe, trustworthy drinking water in Michigan schools. Our team of engineers, social scientists, educators, and K-12 school communities are developing community-led processes to continuously monitor school water, ensure data transparency, and create curriculum on school water and filtration. These processes will inform a Filter First policy implementation guide to promote student health and well-being.

co-design student curriculum on school/home water quality, and focus groups will inform accessible, community-led platforms for real-time school water data.

The teaching unit will be co-developed with the U-M School of Education.

Project leads Jessica Cruz and Julie Arbit are spearheading the second phase of this project which initially began prior to Filter First, a set of laws that require schools and child care centers in Michigan to develop a Drinking Water Management Plan, install lead reducing filters on all consumptive fixtures, and routinely test filtered water. While the first phase focused on students learning about air and water filtration, this second phase is more focused on Filter First policy implementation in ways that work best for school communities. This phase will deploy real-time monitoring sensors on water fountains that were developed by our partners in U-M Engineering. Teachers will

Community KIDS also aims to highlight and offer pathways for students interested in joining the water workforce, in partnership with workforce development agencies. This will be accomplished through the aforementioned certificates, college credit through thematic units, as well as skill and competency training.

Tangible mutual benefits with our partner schools are a priority. Participating teachers will receive continuing education credits for co-designing and implementing a Filter First thematic unit into their courses. Students will have opportunities to obtain tangible recognitions for their participation, such as awards or certificates, for their resumes.

Other long-term goals for the project would be seeing the University of Michigan become a conduit for data justice in the water field, encouraging data sovereignty for local communities who have not historically seen tangible mutual benefits through their participation in academic research projects.

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AN INTERNATIONAL IMPACT ON

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DISASTER RESPONSE

In the summer of 2025, the Center for Social Solutions continued its community-informed water monitoring efforts in collaboration with AIDD Labs at the U-M College of Engineering. The Resilient Infrastructure and Sensors for Everyone (RISE) project launched a year prior and has involved partners from the United States, Nepal, Malaysia, and South Africa.

The long-term goal with this project is to collaborate with local communities to discuss the impacts of flooding on their lives, understand their monitoring needs, and assist with building the best solutions for each situation. This work aims to enhance existing data networks in these regions, which are currently being managed by federal governments and/or nonprofit organizations. With enhanced networks, we can assist with modeling the true extent of flooding and build more accurate warnings for potential disasters.

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18 Top: Dr. Chris Gibbins (left) and Brad Bottoms (right) install a water sensor near the Langat river basin in Malaysia Bottom: Brad Bottoms and Sabine Loos meet with thought partners in Nepal

Our work this summer began in Nepal, where Brad Bottoms, project lead and CSS research area specialist, held high-level discussions in Kathmandu with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) and the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM). At NDDRMA, he met with the head of the agency, who explained their need for water level data to inform their disaster response and recovery efforts. At DHM, they discussed the need for innovative methods to densify and expand their monitoring network. From Kathmandu, they drove to Bharatpur, Chitwan, the focus area of our work in the region. Here, they collaborated with our local partner, the Institute for Social and Environmental ResearchNepal (ISER-N), to speak with local citizens who have been affected by flooding, to understand their experiences and needs.

Flood warning systems in rural areas often center around water height meters such as the one pictured here.

The group then travelled to Malaysia to work with our partners at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. Malaysia is a rapidly developing country, which has led to significant changes in land cover and land use. These rapid changes, paired with more intense and prolonged monsoon periods, have led to increasingly higher flood risks for citizens. During the visit, the team spent time in the Taman Tasik Seminyih (TTS) community, discussing the impacts of these land cover changes and how flooding has impacted their well-being. They also spent time exploring the geographies of the Gabai and Lui rivers, which are part of the larger Langat river basin, and installing water-level sensors.

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$250 Gold sponsorship will allow you to add a node onto an existing sensor group, strengthening the network and providing data to a wider group of people.

SPONSOR A SENSOR

$1,000 Platinum sponsorship will allow you to establish an independent sensor in a critical location such as a remote forest or river, bringing life-saving data to an entirely new community.

Head to page 28 for sponsorship information

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM

EMERGENCY MANAGERS Our Water Equity and Security team surveyed over 200 county emergency managers from across the nation to understand community needs, recovery challenges, and decision-making processes in disaster management. Key insights from the report will shape how we work with municipalities to help foster disaster resilience.

Household Makeup 5.7% Employment 7.6%

Income 29.6%

I AM A TEAM OF ONE

Transportation 10.2%

1 IN 3

respondents reported that their county’s Emergency Action Plan is not accessible to the public

Age 15.9%

Housing 25.4%

BIGGEST CHALLENGES

facing communities bouncing back from severe weather events

LIMITED CAPACITY Many emergency managers responded that their main challenge was limited capacity and staffing.

NEXT STEPS Stakeholder interviews with emergency managers to design ways to fill the identified data gaps in using socioeconomic data for disaster resilience Publish a scholarly paper that analyzes these data gaps and models from other fields that could be used to better operationalize socioeconomic data in disasters Incorporate feedback into methods we are using in our Flood Resilience Assessment Index

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THE FUTURE OF WORK In a moment where advancements in Artificial Intelligence and robotics have sparked concerns for the future of labor, we aim to center humans in their work by facilitating critical and interdisciplinary inquiries, while paying particular attention to past and present inequities driven by race, class, and gender.

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FIVE YEARS LATER: THE DIGNITY OF ESSENTIAL WORKERS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

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The Dignity of Fragile Essential Work in a Pandemic research project was conducted to explore the experiences of southeastern Michigan-based African American essential workers across various lower-skilled sectors during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. CSS Associate Director Alford Young, Jr. and Research Associate Caroline Egan sought to learn how the workers’ interactions with employers, customers, and clients shaped their feelings about their roles as essential workers. These individuals carried out crucial duties across various sectors, including retail, manufacturing, and food services, often at great personal risk.

Despite being labeled as heroes by the public, these workers frequently encountered significant challenges, including inadequate financial compensation and insufficient institutional support.

The study’s preliminary findings show that while public gestures of appreciation were prevalent, they often lacked the necessary accompanying substantive support, such as increased wages or improved working conditions.

Many felt more like “sacrificial” workers rather than truly “essential” workers, with their health and safety compromised due to the increased risk and inconsistent protections.

There was also a noted discrepancy in recognition, with healthcare workers receiving more acknowledgment compared to their peers in other sectors.

THIS STUDY WAS SPONSORED BY THE

RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION

Furthermore, the temporary nature of public appreciation failed to translate into longterm, systemic changes, leaving essential workers feeling under-appreciated as the pandemic continued. This research highlights the critical gap between the public praise for essential workers and the tangible, ongoing support required to truly value their contributions during challenging periods.

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THE DIGNITY OF FRAGILE ESSENTIAL WORK IN A PANDEMIC

THEMES AND FINDINGS Separation of Work and Worker

The majority of workers identified their job responsibilities as essential for their communities, but they themselves did not feel valued as essential for doing that work. They described feeling replaceable and sacrificial, despite periods of intense labor shortage. This articulates a gap between what may be regarded as essential work and who is regarded as a dignified worker.

Differing Degrees of Risk The level of bodily risk and perceived level of protection varied widely by industry and workplace. While workers in healthcare experienced more frequent interactions with sick people, they had consistent access to PPE. On the other hand, retail workers faced inconsistent masking and social distancing requirements while interacting regularly with members of the public whose COVID status was unknown.

The Value of Work While work is often perceived as essential for increasing one’s quality of life, many of these workers felt that going to work would, quite literally, diminish their quality of life because such work put them and their loved ones in the path of illness and possible death.

Managers vs. Clients There was a distinction between the response of management and the response of customers and clients in COVID-era workplace interaction.

That is, workers might have had some degree of agency when managing interactions with customers and clients, but there was no way to avoid the directives of management unless they quit going to work.

Fear of Speaking Out Many participants came into the study years after the emergence of the COVID crisis and reported that they did not feel safe talking about work during the high point of the crisis. Many did not trust anyone they might encounter who wanted to ask them about what it meant to go to work during that period of time.

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STAFF HIGHLIGHTS The Center celebrated the contributions of Chief Administrator Melissa Eljamal in June 2025 as she began her retirement after 31 years of service at the University of Michigan. Melissa has been with the Center for Social Solutions from the very beginning and was integral to transforming Founding Director Earl Lewis’s vision into a functional programmatic unit. We asked Melissa a few questions about her time at the University, as well as what she’s looking forward to in her retirement!

Q: Can you describe your start at the University of Michigan?

MELISSA ELJAMAL

A: I started at the U-M in 1994 and did a practicum in the International Center for my master's degree in Higher Education. I worked as a health insurance coordinator there until I was hired as a Project Coordinator in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the College of Engineering (CoE). I moved into CoE central administration, helping to recruit students to graduate engineering programs, and then assumed the role of Director of International Programs there. I pivoted to the College of Literature, Science, and Arts (LSA) in 2005, where I have been ever since, serving the same three units as they each came into existence.

Q: What has been your favorite aspect of working at the Center for Social Solutions?

A: Only one thing? Being part of a team that does such important work extending beyond the Center, LSA, and even the University. I love the entrepreneurial spirit of the Center where conversations on just about anything in an all-staff meeting can generate multiple ideas for research. Every thought, comment, and idea is a potential for the next big project. I love how much I have learned from the very unique experiences of each of my colleagues in the Center. And it taught me to lean into John Lewis's idea of "good trouble," which I will aspire to do for the rest of my time on Earth, one step at a time.

Q: What is one CSS event or project that you found most interesting?

A: I loved the first screening of The Cost of Inheritance in Rackham Auditorium during the MLK symposium. It was great to see.

Q: What are some things that you're looking forward to doing during retirement?

A: I have a long list! Completion of a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate in order to work with refugees and migrants to the U.S., celebrating my son's upcoming wedding, lots of travel, greater involvement in the Palestine Aid Society (a non-profit serving Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and those in refugee camps throughout the Mideast, of which I am a board member), becoming more fluent in spoken Arabic, quilting and embroidering, reading, gardening, workouts at the gym when fewer people are there, and fully enjoying the quiet time in between, without any rush to the next big project.

We’re wishing Melissa all the best in this new chapter of her life and looking forward to seeing her as a visitor at our future events!

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UNIVERSITY HONORS Earl Lewis Delivers Commencement Address for U-M History Department The University of Michigan History Department held their annual commencement ceremony at the Michigan Theatre on May 2nd, 2025.

CSS Director Earl Lewis, who is also the Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy, presented the ceremony's keynote address, "The Grace of History." The speech focused on the importance of having grace, for themselves and one another. Dr. Lewis recognized the achievements of the Class of 2025 amidst challenging times, such as beginning their college career during the COVID-19 pandemic, and encouraged them to look forward to a future as champions for the field of history.

“What a history major at the University of Michigan has prepared you to undertake is a chance on yourself. If we have been successful, you have been taught to question. You have demanded: Show me the evidence? You know that some sources are more authoritative than others. You know to search for the original documents, to ask bold questions, to consider alternative conclusions, to shed tired orthodoxies, to think independently.” The ceremony graduated 114 history majors surrounded by family, friends, faculty, and staff.

CDF Students Win MLK Spirit Award In January 2025, the students of the Crafting Democratic Futures (CDF) project, housed at CSS, were awarded the 2025 University of Michigan MLK Spirit Award. The Central Campus Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Awards honor undergraduates, graduate students, and student groups on central campus who best exemplify the leadership and extraordinary vision of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Nominees and awardees are recognized at a ceremony, which highlights the various ways in which U-M students have worked to carry on the spirit of Dr. King.

The CDF project has developed tangible recommendations for local, community-led reparations solutions across the country and has been supported by many U-M doctoral students throughout the four years of its operation. These students have contributed to research, event logistics, publishing efforts, and more.

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STUDENT STAFF HIGHLIGHT THE EVOLUTION OF AN INTERN Kamri Hudgins is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Michigan. The focal point of her research examines institutional and socio-cultural drivers of political behavior, with an emphasis on partisan support and elections. She has also worked with the Center for Social Solutions since the Winter 2022 semester, initially recruited as a Rackham Doctoral Intern to assist with the Crafting Democratic Futures project. Her responsibilities included analyzing public opinion data related to racialized policies like reparations, creating detailed reports, and helping team members understand broader political attitudes. Once the semester-long internship ended, Hudgins attributes the Center’s “genuine commitment to centering the community in its research and engagement” as her reason for wanting to stay on. “In academia, it's rare to see institutions prioritize community impact with the same seriousness given to publications or funding,” states Hudgins. “CSS stood out because it approached its work with care, nuance, and a desire to foster real change, not just study it. That alignment with my values made it an easy decision to stay.”

Over the years, her role at the Center has grown to include major contributions to research papers, event management, and speaking on panels. Currently as a research associate, Hudgins has contributed to a number of published works including a piece for RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences titled “Crafting Democratic Futures: Understanding Political Conditions and Racialized Attitudes Toward Black Reparations.” This article explores how racial attitudes influence public opinion on reparations and builds on the kind of data-driven analysis she engaged in at the Center. She also commented on the discourse surrounding the Detroit Reparations Task Force and its efforts to implement reparative justice at the municipal level in an article for The Conversation titled “Detroit’s reparations task force now has until 2025 to make its report – but going slow with this challenging work may not be a bad thing.”

KAMRI HUDGINS, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

As she reflects on her past and future at the Center, Hudgins says, “The Center has been incredibly supportive of both my academic and professional development. It has given me space to receive constructive feedback, sharpen skills that are directly transferable to my graduate work, and encouraged me to pursue opportunities to expand my academic network. The environment at CSS is one where learning and growth are genuinely nurtured.”

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PUBLICATIONS Kamri Hudgins, Erykah Benson, Sydney

Sam Stragand, Rea Maci, Marquise

Carr, Jasmine Simington, Zoe Walker,

Griffin, Matthew D. Lassiter, Rob

Jessica Cruz, Vincent Hutchings, Earl

Mickey, Jennifer Boock Seth, Lara

Lewis, Mara Cecilia Ostfeld, Alford

Tobias-Tarsh, Jessica Cruz, Sydney

Young, Jr., “Crafting Democratic Futures:

Tunstall, Kamri Hudgins, “Harms

Understanding Political Conditions and

Report for the Detroit Reparations,

Racialized Attitudes Toward Black

Task Force,” December 2024

Reparations,” June 2024, RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the

Susan Sturm, What Might Be:

Social Sciences

Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions, February 2025, Our

Nicholas Lemann, Higher Admissions:

Compelling Interests Series.

The Rise, Decline, and Return of Standardized Testing, September 2024,

Julie Arbit, Brad Bottoms, Earl Lewis,

Our Compelling Interests Series.

“‘There’s No Such Thing as a Climate Haven: Floods in North Carolina, Heat

Julie Arbit, Brad Bottoms, Branko

in the Midwest, and More Disasters to

Kerkez, “‘No flood gauges, no warning:

Come Mean All Communities Will

99% of US streams are off the radar

Have to Adapt," June 2025, Zocalo

amid rising flash flood risks – we saw

Public Square.

the harm in 2024," December 2024, The Conversation.

Brad Bottoms, Julie Arbit, Earl Lewis, “Looking for a US ‘climate haven’ away

Kamri Hudgins, Erykah Noelle Benson,

from disaster risks? Good luck finding

Mara Ostfeld, Vincent Hutchings,

one,” July 2025, The Conversation on

“Detroit’s reparations task force now

Extreme Weather

has until 2025 to make its report, but going slow with this challenging work may not be a bad thing,” December 2024, The Conversation.

Our Compelling

Find our most

Interests

recent articles

Book Series

and papers here

Annual Report ‘24-’25

28

GET INVOLVED

HOW TO SUPPORT THE CENTER The Center for Social Solutions depends on the generosity of our financial partners to help us further our mission to identify and implement data-driven solutions that address social inequities. Two funds have been designed to support our main objectives and projects at the Center. No gift is too small, no idea is too large.

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SOLUTIONS STRATEGIC FUND The Center for Social Solutions Strategic Fund provides support for our four distinct initiatives and emerging projects: Diversity and Democracy, Slavery and Its Aftermath, Water Equity and Security, and The Future of Work. Support will serve as a catalyst to advance projects foundational to our work in equity. This vital fund is the best way to offer general support for the Center and to ensure that our current and future work is able to continue amidst an uncertain funding environment.

STUDENT SUPPORT FUND Our Student Support Fund sustains various positions for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students at the Center for Social Solutions. These roles allow for student involvement in essential research, national events, and a variety of projects that grow the Center’s mission and our students’ overarching academic goals.

Scan this QR code to make a contribution to one of our funds today!

GIVING.UMICH.EDU

CSS

CENTER STAFF & PARTNERS LEADERSHIP EARL LEWIS Founding Director ALFORD YOUNG, JR. Associate Director

STAFF JULIE ARBIT Research Area Specialist BRAD BOTTOMS Data Scientist JESSICA CRUZ Managing Director, Research Projects CAROLINE EGAN Research Associate MELISSA ELJAMAL Chief Administrator

DALIA F. PETRUS

SYDNEY TUNSTALL

Program Manager, ALI

Research Associate I

DOREEN TINAJERO Project Senior Manager

ASSOCIATES NANCY CANTOR

STUDENT STAFF

Our Compelling Interests

NIMOTALAI AFOLABI

ALEXANDRA KILLEWALD

Media & Marketing Assistant

Inequity & Opportunity

SIYU GE

SABINE LOOS

Media & Marketing Assistant KYLE HILL Research Assistant KAMRI HUDGINS Research Associate I MIAO LI Research Assistant REA MACI

Resilient Infrastructure and Sensors for Everyone NANCY LOVE Community KIDS DWIGHT MCBRIDE Academic Leadership Institute LUKE SHAEFER Crafting Democratic Futures

SARA KHAN

Research Associate I

BRADFORD SMITH

Communications Lead

JASMINE SIMINGTON

Visiting Professional

KREED LILE

Research Associate I

Executive Secretary

Center for Social Solutions staff pictured July 2025

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LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

ENSLAVED PEOPLES LABOR ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The Center for Social Solutions acknowledges that the University of Michigan was built on the ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabeg (including the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Bodewadomi) and Wyandot, past, present, and future. The indigenous peoples granted their land in exchange for a guarantee that education at U-M would be equitable and accessible to indigenous peoples and other Michigan residents.

We recognize, acknowledge, and affirm the historic and contemporary solidarities and intersections between Black and Indigenous peoples.

We assert the sovereignty of tribal lands and acknowledge the painful historical and ongoing genocide, forced assimilation, and displacement of Native communities in the establishment of U-M. We affirm the profound contributions of Native American peoples to this institution and the University's commitment to educate children of Native ancestors.

We acknowledge the extraction of brilliance, energy, and life for labor forced upon people of African descent for more than 400 years. As an organization, we are dedicated to advancing solutions that promote equality, dismantle oppressive systems, and uplift the voices and experiences of marginalized communities. We understand that acknowledging the labor of enslaved peoples is an essential step in addressing the historical and present-day injustices that continue to shape our society. We carry our ancestors within us, and we are continually called to be better. We commit to dismantling racism in spaces of our work. We invite you to work beside us to create change.

NONDISCRIMINATION POLICY STATEMENT The University of Michigan, including the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Flint campuses as well as Michigan Medicine, as an equal opportunity employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints regarding these matters can be directed to the Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX Office at 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432. Contact can be made via phone at 734-763-0235 or TTY 734-6471388, and through email at ecrtoffice@umich.edu. For additional University of Michigan information, please call 734-764-1817.

We thank you for your continued support in our efforts to advance social justice.

CONTACT 505 South State Street 6500 Haven Hall Ann Arbor, MI 48109 socialsolutions@umich.edu 734.647.9707 www.lsa.umich.edu/social-solutions

© 2025 The Regents of the University of Michigan Jordan B. Acker (Huntington Woods), Michael J. Behm (Grand Blanc), Mark J. Bernstein (Ann Arbor), Paul W. Brown (Ann Arbor), Sarah Hubbard (Okemos), Denise Ilitch (Bingham Farms), Carl J. Meyers (Dearborn), Katherine E. White (Ann Arbor)