Alex Ralph is a lecturer at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, where he teaches expository writing and courses on storytelling through public policy. He is at work on a novel set in 1970s Detroit and is also the editor of the Corruption in Fragile States Blog. In addition to two previous stories for Soapbox, he has written for the Cincinnati Enquirer about Hamilton County's mental health felony court and how one elementary school used in-house assessments to accelerate student learning.