EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 4:30 p.m. Oct. 24, 2013

EVENT: Roberto J. Rodriguez, who serves on the White House Domestic Policy Council as special assistant to President Obama for education, will discuss the president’s goals in higher education policy as part of the Policy Talks @ the Ford School speaker series.

He’s also helping to kick off a two-day conference on student loans and growing debt burdens that features Susan Dynarski, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy and the School of Education and Brian Jacob, a Ford School education policy professor.

Previously, Rodriguez was chief education counsel to the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. In this capacity, Rodriguez managed the Democratic Party education agenda and led policy development and strategy for legislation addressing early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, higher education, and adult education.

Rodriguez is a graduate of U-M and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The event will be live webstreamed at www.fordschool.umich.edu. Join the conversation on Twitter: #policytalks

PLACE: Annenberg Auditorium, 1120 Weill Hall, 735 S. State St., Ann Arbor

SPONSOR: The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and its Education Policy Initiative

CONTACT: Laura Lee, Ford School, lklee@umich.edu, (734) 764-8593