Celeste Watkins-Hayes is the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She also holds the titles of Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, and professor of sociology. Dr. Watkins-Hayes is an internationally recognized scholar and expert widely credited for her research at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and human service institutions, with a special focus on HIV/AIDS; poverty; and race, class, and gender studies. 
 

In 2025, she was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), where she contributes her expertise to shape national HIV/AIDS policy. She has published three books, numerous journal articles and edited volumes, and pieces in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Chicago Magazine. She is frequently quoted in the popular press as a national expert on social inequality, HIV/AIDS, and societal safety nets. Her book Remaking a Life: How Women Living with HIV/AIDS Confront Inequality (2019, University of California Press) won seven awards, including the American Sociological Association (ASA) Distinguished Book Award, the discipline's highest book honor. Watkins-Hayes' first book, The New Welfare Bureaucrats: Entanglements of Race, Class, and Policy Reform, was a Finalist for the 2009 C. Wright Mills Book Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems and the 2011 Max Weber Book Award from the American Sociological Association. 
 

Dr. Watkins-Hayes holds a PhD and MA in sociology from Harvard University and a BA from Spelman College, where she graduated summa cum laude. Throughout her career, she has served in numerous academic leadership positions, including associate vice president for research, chair of the Department of African American Studies, and founding director of the ASCEND Faculty Development Program at her previous institution, Northwestern University. Prior to becoming Dean of the Ford School, Watkins-Hayes served as Interim Dean and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. She also served on the board of trustees of Spelman College for over a decade in various leadership roles, including leading the search process for the college’s 10th president.