Office of the Dean

To the community,

I hope that everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday break and a productive January. I am excited that our spring term is beginning, and I am looking forward to all that we will do in the next few months.

I spent most of last week in London, meeting with alumni and fundraising for financial aid, faculty positions, and a range of research and teaching activities. As I talked with our alumni and friends, we shared our deep concerns about much that is happening in the world today and our recognition that we who are working to advance the public interest have a great deal to do: We saw the news about terrorist attacks in Kenya and Syria, additional deaths of people trying to migrate to Europe across the Mediterranean, a fatal explosion spurred by theft in Mexico, and other tragedies around the world. We saw corrupt and authoritarian leaders in a number of countries claim to be responding to the will of their people but actually serving their personal ends. We saw the government of the unable to agree on a path for exiting from the European Union and the government of the unable to function at the most basic level.

The long shutdown of the U.S. government hits especially close to home for me. I worked for the government for 20 years and led a small agency through the last prolonged shutdown. I am now watching many of my former colleagues, and many alumni of the Kennedy School, not being paid and not being able to do the important work they want to do. I know that some of you have friends and family who are directly affected by the shutdown as well. I find the situation especially frustrating because it could have been avoided by better public leadership, as could the other developments around the globe that I just mentioned.

And yet … I also talked with alumni and friends of the Kennedy School in London about my optimism that people of good will can make a better world. I said that my optimism is founded partly on evidence we can all observe. Nick Kristof (a New York Times columnist, former member of the visiting committee of the Kennedy School, and visitor to our Center for Public Leadership this coming April) broke from his usual pattern of worrying columns with a column titled “Why 2018 Was the Best Year in Human History!” Nick cited data on rising standards living, increasing longevity, decreasing deaths in childhood, increasing rates of literacy, and more. He wrote: “I cover butchery and misrule every other day of the year, and I do this annual column about progress to try to place those tragedies [covered in his usual columns] in perspective … [T]he gains show us what is possible and spur greater efforts to improve opportunity worldwide.”

I also said that my optimism is founded on my experiences every day in the Kennedy School community, where I see people working hard and effectively to advance the public interest. To mention just a few recent examples from different groups in our community (and my apologies to all of the amazing members of our community whose wonderful contributions I don’t have room for here):

Faculty: Our faculty are making outstanding contributions to the ideas that shape public policy, and many of them receive awards for their work. For example: Sheila Jasanoff won the 2018 Albert O. Hirschman Prize from the Social Science Research Council for her “outstanding contributions to international, interdisciplinary social science research, theory, and public communication.” Ben Schneer was a co-winner of the 2018 Best Paper Award for the American Journal of Political Science, recognizing his work on petition canvasser behavior and the implications for political inequality. David Deming won the David N. Kershaw Award for early-career contributions to public policy. And Carmen Reinhart received the King Juan Carlos Prize in Economics, which is awarded every other year to recognize the career of a Spaniard or Latin American in economics. We are very proud of all the achievements of our faculty as they strive to solve important public problems.

Students: Many students have been participating this month in student-led treks to learn about places and people they do not know much about, or working with clients around the world on PAEs and SYPAs, or studying negotiation, persuasion, leadership styles, and other topics in J-term courses. In an exciting new effort, 16 students worked with the transition teams of five incoming governors across the United States and a senior state official here in Massachusetts. This “Transition Term” program was instigated by students Sam Birnbaum, Alison Dorsey, and Daniel Goetzel with support from various offices at the School, and more than 100 students applied to participate. This program is a terrific example of how the Kennedy School can have a constructive impact on the world in the course of our own learning.

Staff: Thanks to the dedicated work of our staff members, the Kennedy School continues to function at a high level, driving our teaching and research ahead. For example, the start-up of our transformed campus has occurred very smoothly, and, enabled by strong collaboration across departments and centers, we hosted hundreds of events in the fall. Even when the School is not in session, our staff keep things humming, from the mailroom to the development team, the finance and human resources offices, and more. I am enthusiastic about the impending expansion of our virtual campus through a suite of online courses that a group of our staff and faculty have been developing and piloting. And I am delighted that staff members, collaborating with students and faculty members, have chosen undergraduates from more than 50 colleges to participate in this spring’s Public Policy Leadership Conference—an annual convening to encourage top students from underrepresented, first-generation, and low-income populations to attend graduate programs in public policy and pursue careers in public service.

Alumni: From Alabama to Albania, and from New York City to Niger, Kennedy School alumni are making a significant positive difference. During my trip to London, I met with alumni who are working to promote girls’ education in Africa, cause companies to operate in more sustainable ways, enhance the skills of young people in Pakistan, help children with disabilities, improve financial regulation, and more. Here in the United States, the Congress now includes 28 of our degree program alumni and executive education participants, including Senator Chris Van Hollen MPP 1985 of Maryland, with whom I worked closely when he was in the House and focused on budget issues; Senator Martha McSally MPP 1990 of Arizona, the first American woman to fly in combat; Jim Langevin MPA 1994, a congressman from Rhode Island who focuses on cybersecurity among other topics and is the first quadriplegic to serve in Congress; MPP 2003, a congressman from California and the son of Mexican parents who immigrated here in the early 1970s; and Dan Crenshaw MC/MPA 2017, a congressman and former Navy SEAL.

In sum, the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the Kennedy School share a deep and abiding commitment to the public interest, and have extraordinary talent and drive that give this commitment real force in the world—which gives me great optimism for the future. Indeed, a recent alumnus who works for the U.S. government just sent a message describing some of the challenges he faces and then concluding: “But, bottom line is that the job has been great, and I hope to be able to stay for a while.”

I want to close with one other important note. Yesterday this country celebrated the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an extraordinary leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Bryan Stevenson MPP/JD 1985, a powerful and persistent advocate for justice in this country (and a speaker in the Forum last month ), was interviewed in the New York Times on Sunday. Asked what Martin Luther King Jr. would think if he were alive today, Bryan Stevenson said that Dr. King would be “heartbroken” about many things he would see and that “we’re not in that world yet” of which Dr. King dreamed. But, he said, “we have to be willing to make that commitment so that we can create a world where if Dr. King emerged, he would be so proud to say his dream has finally been realized.” At the Kennedy School, we regularly quote our namesake’s call to action of “Ask what you can do for your country”; Martin Luther King Jr. had offered a similar call earlier, saying “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” I hope that we each ask ourselves that question every day.

Here’s to a spring of learning that empowers us all.

Doug