ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan faculty are available to discuss tonight’s State of the Union address, in which President Barack Obama will talk about the economy, taxes and other issues. The experts include:

ECONOMY:

Sheldon Danziger, the H. J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor of public policy, is a scholar of poverty, income inequality, social welfare programs and policy. He directs the National Poverty Center at the U-M Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He can be reached at (734) 615-8321 or sheldond@umich.edu.

Joel Slemrod, director of the Office of Tax Policy Research and the Paul W. McCracken Collegiate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Ross School of Business, is a renowned authority on the economic effects of taxation, international aspects of taxation, tax compliance and tax law enforcement, and tax reform and savings behavior in the United States and worldwide. He serves as a member of the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Economic Advisers, Joint Committee on Taxation Revenue Estimating Advisory Board and Internal Revenue Service Consultants’ Panel for Statistics of Income. He can be reached at (734) 936-3914 or jslemrod@umich.edu.

SPEECHES:

Michael Traugott, professor of communication studies and senior research scientist, ISR Center for Political Studies, is an authority on political communication, public opinion, media polling and campaign surveys. He can be reached at (734) 647-0421 or mtrau@umich.edu.

VOTERS:

Michael Heaney, assistant professor of organizational studies and political science, examines the organizational dimensions of American politics. His research focuses on the role of intermediary institutions—especially interest groups, political parties and social movements—in shaping the political process and policy outcomes. He can be reached at (202) 236-3369 or mheaney@umich.edu.