The Center for Public Leadership (CPL) is an academic research center at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
that provides teaching, research and training in the practical skills of leadership for people in government, nonprofits, and business. Located at
Harvard Kennedy School
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
, CPL was established in 2000 through a gift from the Wexner Foundation.
Directors
Hannah Riley Bowles and Deval Patrick currently serve as Co-Directors of the Center for Public Leadership.
Hannah Riley Bowles Hannah Riley Bowles Roy E. Larsen Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at HKS, was appointed Co-Director of CPL in May 2021 following the departure of Wendy Sherman. A leading expert on gender in negotiation, Bowles also chairs the HKS Management, Leadership, and Decision Sciences (MLD) Area and co-directs the HKS Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP).
Deval Patrick
In February 2022, former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick joined Harvard Kennedy School as Co-Director of CPL and Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership.
Past Directors
David Gergen
David Richmond Gergen (born May 9, 1942) is an American political commentator and former presidential adviser who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He is currently a senior political ...
, former presidential advisor who served during the administrations of
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
, served as CPL director from 2000 to 2018. Gergen was succeeded by American diplomat Wendy R. Sherman. Sherman directed CPL until early 2021, when she was appointed
United States Deputy Secretary of State
The deputy secretary of state of the United States is the principal deputy to the secretary of state. The current deputy secretary of state is Wendy Ruth Sherman, serving since April 2021 under secretary of state Antony Blinken. If the secretary ...
The Center for Public Leadership' fellowship programs provide tuition support and cohort-based co-curricular programming to students pursuing master's degrees at Harvard Kennedy School and other graduate schools across Harvard University.
Bacon Environmental Fellowship — for students dedicated to preserving and enhancing our shared environment.
Black Family Fellowship — for U.S. veterans and active duty military committed to public leadership.
Emirates Leadership Initiative (ELI) Fellowship — for students from the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East looking to lead in a global marketplace.
Fellowship for Serving African-American Communities (FSAAC) — for talented emerging leaders dedicated to improving the lives of the underserved in the U.S.
George Leadership Fellowship — for joint-degree students at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School entering the private and public sectors.
Gleitsman Leadership Fellowship — for entrepreneurs and agents of social change.
U.S. Latino Leadership Fellowship — for leaders addressing disparities in Latino and underserved communities in the U.S.
David M. Rubenstein Fellowship — for outstanding students innovating in public policy and business.
Wexner Israel Fellowship — for inspired and active mid-career students from Israel.
Zuckerman Fellows Program — for outstanding students in business, law, and medicine.
Th Hauser Leaders Program allows high-profile leaders from across sectors to join CPL for one-to-two semesters to advise students and lead events.
Hauser Institute for Civil Society
Established through a grant by
Rita
Rita may refer to:
People
* Rita (given name)
* Rita (Indian singer) (born 1984)
* Rita (Israeli singer) (born 1962)
* Rita (Japanese singer)
* Eliza Humphreys (1850–1938), wrote under the pseudonym Rita
Places
* Djarrit, also known as Rita, ...
and Gustave Hauser in 1997, the Hauser Institute for Civil Society (formerly the
Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University seeks to expand understanding and accelerate critical thinking about civil society among scholars, practitioners, policy makers and the general public, by encouraging scholarship, ...
) joined CPL in 2013. The Hauser Institute supports research and programming related to civil society and non-profit organizations. Hauser Institute initiatives include the Gleitsman Program in Leadership for Social Change, the Initiative for Responsible Investment, and the New World Social Innovation Fellowship.
Jacinda Ardern
Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( ; born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician who has been serving as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party since 2017. A member of the Labour Party, she has been the member of ...
, Prime Minister of New Zealand
* 2018 –
Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second P ...
, Founder,
Malala Fund
Malala Fund is an international, non-profit organization that advocates for girls' education. It was co-founded by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and her father, Ziauddin. T ...
and
2014 Nobel Peace Prize
The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was shared, in two equal parts, between Kailash Satyarthi (b. 1954) and Malala Yousafzai (b. 1997) "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education" ...
Sasha Chanoff
Sasha Chanoff is an American humanitarian based in Somerville, Massachusetts who has worked for two decades in refugee rescue, relief, and resettlement operations in AfricaRefugePoint
* 2011 – Teresa Ulloa Ziáurriz, Latin America and Caribbean regional director for Coalition Against Trafficking Women
* 2009 – Karen Tse, founder of International Bridges to Justice
* 2007 – Sakena Yacoobi, executive director of the Afghan Institute of Learning
* 2005 –
Han Dongfang
Han Dongfang (韓東方, born 1963) is a Chinese advocate for workers' rights.
Han was born in the impoverished village of Nanweiquan in Shanxi and first came to international prominence as a railway worker in Beijing. He helped set up the Be ...
, advocate of the worker's movement in China; Patrick Alley,
Charmian Gooch
Charmian Penelope Gooch (born 1965) is a British anti-corruption campaigner and activist. She is a co-founder and board member of the NGO Global Witness, where she works to uncover and fight corruption in the developing world.
Gooch's career sp ...
, and Simon Taylor, founders of
Global Witness
Global Witness is an international NGO established in 1993 that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide. The organisation has offices in London and Washin ...
* 2003 – Leaders in the fight against poverty:
Fazle Hasan Abed
Sir Fazle Hasan Abed ( bn, ফজলে হাসান আবেদ; 27 April 1936 – 20 December 2019) was the founder of BRAC, one of the world's largest non-governmental organizations.
Early life
Abed was born on 27 April 1936 in the vi ...
, Founder of
BRAC University
BRAC University ( bn, ব্র্যাক বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়, also known as BracU) is a private research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was established in 2001 as a branch of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed's BRAC un ...
(formerly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee); Jaya Arunachalam, Founder of the
Working Women's Forum
The Working Women's Forum (WWF) is a women's organisation in southern India. It was founded in 1978 by Jaya Arunachalam in Madras (Chennai). The WWF aims to empower poor women in southern India by providing microcredit, a trade union, health ca ...
Dalit
Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...
's Rights
*1999 – Advocates for reconciliation in the Middle East: Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen);
Yossi Beilin
Yosef "Yossi" Beilin ( he, יוסף "יוסי" ביילין, born 12 June 1948) is an Israeli politician who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government. Much of his political career was in the Labour Pa ...
; Bassem Eid; Yitzhak Frankenthal, Galia Golan,
Faisal Husseini
Faisal Abdel Qader Al-Husseini ( ar, فيصل عبدالقادر الحسيني) (July 17, 1940 – May 31, 2001) was a Palestinian politician.
Al-Husseini was born in Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq, son of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, commander of local ...
Uri Savir
Uri Savir ( he, אורי סביר; 7 January 1953 – 14 May 2022) was an Israeli diplomat and politician. He was Israel's chief negotiator for the Oslo Accords and served as a Member of Knesset (MK) from 1999 to 2001.
Early life
Savir was born ...
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...
,
Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
and King
Hussein bin Talal
Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of ...
of Jordan
*1997 – Maria Adela Antokoletz, Argentinean founder of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine human rights association formed in response to the National Reorganization Process, the military dictatorship by Jorge Rafael Videla, with the goal of finding the '' desaparecidos'', initially, a ...
);
Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance ...
, Bangladeshi lender to the poor
*1995 –
José Ramos-Horta
José Manuel Ramos-Horta (; born 26 December 1949) is an East Timorese politician currently serving as president of East Timor since May 2022. He previously served as president from 20 May 2007 to 20 May 2012. Previously he was Minister of For ...
, East Timor independence advocate;
Serge and Beate Klarsfeld
Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notab ...
African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...
President;
Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng (; born 20 May 1950) is a Chinese human rights activist and dissident. He is best known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement. He is most prominent for having authored the essay " The Fifth Modernization", which w ...
, Advocate for Democracy in China. Posthumous Awards in memory of
Helen Joseph
Helen Beatrice Joseph (''née'' Fennell) (8 April 1905 – 25 December 1992) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Born in Sussex, England, Helen graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927 and then departe ...
and
Petra Kelly
Petra Karin Kelly (29 November 1947 – 1 October 1992) was a German Green politician and ecofeminist activist. She was a founding member of the German Green Party, the first Green party to rise to prominence both nationally in Germany and wo ...
Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award
* 2017 – Congressman
John Lewis
John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...
, U.S. Representative, 5th district of Georgia
* 2014 –
Eric Greitens
Eric Robert Greitens (; born April 10, 1974) is a former American politician who was the 56th governor of Missouri from January 2017 until his resignation in June 2018 amid allegations of sexual assault and campaign finance impropriety.
Born a ...
Share Our Strength
Share Our Strength is a national organization working to end childhood hunger and poverty in the United States. Share Our Strength holds culinary events, solicits individual donations, and uses social media to raise funds, which are then used to ...
* 2006 – Ron Grzywinski and Mary Houghton, founders of Shore Bank;
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Steinem was a c ...
, citizen activist;
Julie Stewart
Julie Anne Stewart (born 1967) is a Canadian stage, film, television and voice actress, and director. She is most commonly known for her role as Sgt. Ali McCormick from the CTV television series ''Cold Squad''.
Life
Stewart was born in Kingston, ...
, founder of
Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1991 to challenge mandatory sentencing laws and advocate for criminal justice reform. FAMM promotes sentencing policies that give judges the d ...
* 2004 – K-12 education advocates: Christopher Barbic, Yvonne Chan, Michael Feinberg & David Levin, Bertha Lewis,
Michelle Rhee
Michelle Ann Rhee (born December 25, 1969) is an American educator and advocate for education reform. She was Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools from 2007 to 2010. In late 2010, she founded StudentsFirst, a non-profit organizati ...
, Mark Rosenbaum, J.B.Schramm, Agnes Stevens, Margot Stern Strom, and Kevin Sved & Johnathan Williams
* 2002 –
Mike Farrell
Michael Joseph Farrell Jr. (born February 6, 1939) is an American actor, best known for his role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the television series ''M*A*S*H'' (1975–83). Farrell was a producer of ''Patch Adams'' (1998) starring Robin Willi ...
, activist and actor;
Mimi Silbert
Mimi Halper Silbert serves as the chairman of the board, president, and CEO of the Delancey Street Foundation, a residential educational community that provides ex-felons, sex workers, substance abusers, and others with academic, vocational, and so ...
, founder of
Delancey Street Foundation
The Delancey Street Foundation, often simply referred to as Delancey Street, is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that provides residential Drug rehabilitation, rehabilitation services and Vocational education, vocational training pro ...
* 2000 –
Jack Kevorkian
Murad Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian (May 26, 1928 – June 3, 2011) was an American pathologist and euthanasia proponent. He publicly championed a terminal patient's right to die by physician-assisted suicide, embodied in his quote, "Dying is n ...
, end-of-life issues activist;
Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson (born November 14, 1959) is an American lawyer, social justice activist, law professor at New York University School of Law, and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, h ...
, founder and Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative
*1998 – Anti-Tobacco Advocates: Alan Blum,Stanton Glantz, Former Vice President
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...
, former Washington Attorney General
Christine Gregoire
Christine Gregoire (; née O'Grady; born March 24, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 22nd governor of Washington from 2005 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she defeated Republican candidate Dino Rossi in 2004, and ag ...
,
C. Everett Koop
Charles Everett Koop (October 14, 1916 – February 25, 2013) was an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as the 13th Surgeon Ge ...
, Janet Carol Mangini, Congressman
Henry Waxman
Henry Arnold Waxman (born September 12, 1939) is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from California from 1975 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
His district included much of the western part of the city of ...
,
Jeffrey Wigand
Jeffrey Stephen Wigand (; born December 17, 1942) is an American biochemist and whistleblower.
He is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the development of reduced-har ...
, Merrell Williams, and Patricia Young
*1996 – Geraldine Jensen, founder of the Association for Children for the Enforcement of Support; Tanya Tull, Founder of Beyond Shelter
*1994 –
Wendy Kopp
Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries.
In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...
, Founder of Teach for America;
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes.
The son of Lebanese immigrants to the U ...
*1992 – Louis Clark, Executive Director of the
Government Accountability Project
The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a nonprofit whistleblower protection and advocacy organization in the United States. It was founded in 1977.
Activities
In 1992, GAP represented Aldric Saucier, who had lost his job and security c ...
; William Wassmuth, founder of The Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment
*1991 – Karen Nussbaum, co-founder of
9to5, National Association of Working Women
9to5, National Association of Working Women is an organization established in 1973 that is dedicated to improving working conditions and ensuring the rights of women and families in the United States.
The group has its origins in ''9to5 News'', ...
; Ann Wilson, Chairperson of the Board of Commissioners, Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee
*1990 – Sophia Bracy Harris, co-founder of the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama; Deborah C. McKeithan, creator of four national organizations to act as support networks for the disabled