ANN ARBOR—Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager of the Detroit Public Schools, will deliver the commencement address at the spring commencement exercises of the University of Michigan School of Education May 1.

Bobb was appointed by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to work with the 87,000-student school district on March 2, 2009. His term is scheduled to expire in March 2011. His primary assignment was to bring the district’s $400 million deficit under control, an assignment that has expanded to include the development of strategies to improve the district’s academic difficulties.

“Robert Bobb has a passionate determination to make urban schools work,” said Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the U-M School of Education. “He is articulate about the urgency of the need for change, and the importance of bringing the best skills and teamwork to bear in this effort. Our graduates are educators who must play key roles in the improvement of education. Mr. Bobb will challenge them with both a clear sense of the problems but also of real hope.”

Bobb has more than 30 years management experience in both the private and public sectors. He is the owner, president, and CEO of the LAPA Group, LLC, a private/public-sector consulting firm.

He was the president of the Washington, D.C. Board of Education; the city administrator and deputy mayor for Washington, D.C.; the city manager of Oakland, Calif., and executive director of the Oakland Redevelopment Agency; city manager of Richmond, Virginia; city manager of Santa Ana, California; and city manager of Kalamazoo. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Grambling State University and a master’s degree in business from Western Michigan University.

The ceremony begins at 5:30 p.m. at Hill Auditorium on the U-M Ann Arbor campus, 825 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor.