Good Services Lab

Reimagining cities where all can flourish

The Good Services Lab, led by Kimberlyn Leary, Ph.D., MPA, is a think-and-do lab based at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University. The lab supports current and future government and community leaders in data-driven innovation and to collaborate across boundaries to advance resident outcomes.

Stay in touch: Fill out our interest form.

Our Topics and Practice Areas

  • Health and public health equity
  • Public service delivery
  • Environmental and climate justice
  • Wealth, mobility, and opportunity gaps
  • Digital divides and “AI for good” in public service delivery
  • Democracy and government innovation

Team Participation in Executive Education Teaching:

  • Cross-Boundary Collaboration. Faculty director Kimberlyn Leary, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative

  • Leading City Procurement Reform. Co-faculty directors Kimberlyn Leary and Jeffrey Liebman and the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative

  • Program for New Mayors: First 100 Days. Co-faculty directors Kimberlyn Leary and Mitch Weiss, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative

  • Health Equity by Design, Harvard Medical School

Our Contributions

Health Equity
Leading Change
Climate Change
Podcasts
  • Evidence in Action: A Podcast of the Urban Institute, since 2024. Cross-sectoral changemakers address the question: What does it look like for evidence to drive change for people and communities?
  • Agility at Work, since 2019. This 40-session podcast welcomes authors and other guests to share actionable advice on adaptive leadership and agile negotiation.
Equity Innovation Hub

Now a core workstream of the Good Services Lab, the Equity Innovation Hub will function as an R & D platform to identify, test, and scale durable strategies for delivering inclusive outcomes. The Hub will provide an innovation space to explore the next frontier of public service—co-developing promising prototypes and rigorously assessing what will work, for whom, and under what conditions.

Our People

 

Keirstanne Coffman
Executive and Faculty Assistant
NanaEfua Afoh-Manin
Fellow
Amira Boland
Fellow
Ginny Hunt
Fellow
Maya Mechenbier
Fellow

 


How We're Making an Impact

"Good Services"

Chief Equity Officers Collaborative

Research-to-Action Field-building

"Good Services"

women standing together for a photo

Good Services

Improving outcomes for city residents by identifying, building on, and scaling leading practices for delivering more effective public services through integrating disciplines like behavioral insights, customer experience, and implementation science.


Chief Equity Officers Collaborative

group of people sitting around a table in a meeting

Chief Equity Officers Collaborative

A learning community for municipal Chief Equity Officers, with Data-Smart City Solutions.


Research-to-Action Field-building

four person panel, all seated in white chairs

Research-to-Action Field-building

Equipping leaders and communities with practical and essential data, tools, and insights to nimbly advance resident outcomes in complex policy, legal, and regulatory environments.


Featured Research

Forthcoming:

Newborn Supply Kit: A Case Study for City Leaders in Innovative Cross-Sector Collaboration to Support Families’ Needs

Equity at the Crossroads

Stay up to date on our latest work to improve cities