Select Harvard graduate students from across the university will bring their skills and experience to U.S. and international cities. 

May 14, 2024, Cambridge, Massachusetts—The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative welcomed its newest cohort of Summer Fellows today. The Initiative is a collaboration between Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and Bloomberg Philanthropies to equip mayors and senior city officials to tackle complex challenges in their cities and improve the quality of life of their residents. After reviewing more than 82 applications across eight graduate programs this year and matching applicants with city priorities and projects, the Initiative selected 18 highly accomplished graduate and doctoral students to spend the summer embedded in local government.

Fellows will meaningfully contribute to improving government services and present project deliverables and recommendations to mayors and senior leaders in their cities, all recent participants in the Initiative’s programming:

• Anaheim, California
  Enrique Mutis, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  Addressing Livability Challenges in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

 

• Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
  Josh Young, Harvard Kennedy School
  Low-cost but High Quality: Implementing an Affordable Rental Rehabilitation Program in Bethlehem

 

• Cape Town, South Africa
  CJ Jiang, Harvard Kennedy School
  Build Out of Cape Town’s Heat Action Plan

 

• Columbia, Missouri
  Farih Satria Rahim, Harvard Kennedy School
  Understanding and Addressing Disparities in Police Vehicle Traffic Stops

 

• Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  Gaby Gabriela, Harvard Business School
  Improving Public Safety Response through Innovation

 

• Hamilton, Canada
  Evan Teplensky, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  A Data-driven, Customer-informed Approach to Developing a New City-wide Customer Service Strategy

 

• Iowa City, Iowa
  Naomi Mehta, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  Expanding Access to Affordable Public Housing through the Iowa City Housing Authority

 

• Louisville, Kentucky
  Derrick Holifield, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Ensuring Healthy Safe Parks

 

• Newport News, Virginia
  Allen Wang, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  Innovating City Services with Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Strategic Exploration

 

• Ottawa, Canada
  Stelio Louka, Harvard Kennedy School
  Rethinking the Ottawa Hand in Hand Policy

 

• Port St. Lucie, Florida
  Nikki Zheng, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  Growing Connection: Innovation through Implementing High-performance Public Spaces

 

• Providence, Rhode Island
  Steven Li, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  Evaluation of Tax Policies to Reduce Vacant Land (an extension of a HKS Field Lab project)

 

• Salem, Oregon
  Natasha Khwaja, Harvard Kennedy School
  Enhancing City Services and Improving Transparency

 

• Tallahassee, Florida
  Ellen Paik, Harvard Kennedy School
  Rerouting: Solving the Financial Dilemma of Public Transportation

 

• Torino, Italy
  Kiron Chandy, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  Crafting and Communicating Torino’s Narrative as a Climate-forward City

 

• Tracy, California
  Jordan Weatherl, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Engaging Employees, Strengthening Community, and Building Trust through Improved Communications

 

• uMngeni, South Africa
  Gigi Sung, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  Improving the Integrity of Income Data for Realistic Planning and Informed Public Assistance Provision

 

• Wellington, New Zealand
  Shannon Zhan, Harvard Kennedy School
  Creating Safer Pathways into Public Office for Women

Fellows will work directly with city leaders to drive government performance and address pressing social problems in project areas including inclusive governance, affordable housing, climate action, public leadership, and public space.

Each fellow in the cohort will aid their host city through recommendations, analyses, recommendations, plan designs, new resources or other supports that will enable the mayor, senior leaders, and other key stakeholders to advance priority projects in the community.

“Our fellows are excited, motivated, and eager to couple their personal investment in the project areas with their academic learnings and experience to achieve the target deliverables,” said Pascha McTyson, the Initiative’s Director of Student Engagement.

Since 2018, the Initiative has placed 139 Harvard graduate students in paid summer roles in 114 cities across 13 countries. Some Summer Fellows have been hired for full-time roles in cities after the conclusion of the fellowship term.

This year’s cohort of Summer Fellows includes graduate and doctoral candidates from the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Harvard Business School.