Category: United States

Reimagining the Future of Wyoming

Group photo at HKS

Guest blog by Anna Rhee, Barkha Tripathi, Naomi Beyth-Zoran, Freddy Guevara Key Learnings from the Course Working in teams: As aspiring policy practitioners, we never thought as fundamentally and structurally about group-work as we did in this course. Oftentimes, work is not mobilized or its potential remains unmet because people are struggling to align and…Continue Reading Reimagining the Future of Wyoming

Commuting Challenges in New Orleans: It’s been Quite a Ride! 

Group photo collage

Guest blog by Alexandra Lastra Andrade, Bran Shim, Giovanna Lia Toledo, Mannat Singh, and Courtney Young  “The Drive Alone Mode is too high.” In a span of just six weeks, our team was tasked with learning and applying Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) to understand what this statement meant to us—and what it meant for…Continue Reading Commuting Challenges in New Orleans: It’s been Quite a Ride! 

Enabling Emerging Developers to Increase Housing Development in New Bedford, MA

Stores and homes overlooking the water in a historic town

Guest blog by Joshua Amaral, LEG’23 I was fortunate to be in a very diverse group, in terms of geographic location, industry, and experience. But given this, I was especially struck by the similarities, or common threads, that ran between all of our economic growth challenges. My challenge is a fairly small one in the…Continue Reading Enabling Emerging Developers to Increase Housing Development in New Bedford, MA

Addressing the Labor Shortage in the State of Wyoming 

Cityscape in Wyoming

Guest blog by John Jenks, IPP’23 The policy implementation challenge that I worked on during the Implementation Public Policy (IPP) course was the shortage of workforce in the State of Wyoming that discourages new firms from entering the state, inhibits existing firms from growing or expanding, and/or contributes to existing firms closing shop and moving…Continue Reading Addressing the Labor Shortage in the State of Wyoming 

Weaving Health into the Policy Fabric: Dearborn’s Journey Toward Inclusive Governance 

Hand arranging wooden blocks with healthcare icons

Guest blog by Ali Abazeed, IPP ’23 Introduction  In the quiet bustle of my hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, the city that put the world on wheels, a new kind of revolution is brewing within the halls of government that brings the same locomotive force as a motor vehicle. Except this vehicle isn’t propelled by four…Continue Reading Weaving Health into the Policy Fabric: Dearborn’s Journey Toward Inclusive Governance 

Building public trust in the midst of crisis and change

Group photo with Mayor Beaty

Guest blog by Jennifer Hale Christy, IPP ’23 I began my Implementing Public Policy journey in May of 2023, eight months into serving as Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Beaverton, Oregon. Before that, I served as the Mayor’s Communication Officer for nearly two years. My journey to public service was unconventional–from seminary to…Continue Reading Building public trust in the midst of crisis and change

Building a 15-minute city in lower income neighborhoods – with people, not for people 

Aerial view of neighborhood

Guest blog by Joyce Pan Huang, IPP ’23 As someone new to the public sector in the last two years, I leapt at the opportunity to attend the Implementing Public Policy program. I enjoyed building friendships and connections with government officials and policymakers from around the world. While our challenges were different across the world,…Continue Reading Building a 15-minute city in lower income neighborhoods – with people, not for people 

Reflections on IPP and Returning to Work

Person summiting a mountain

Guest blog by Marcio Paes Barreto, IPP ’23 As my course Implementing Public Policy (IPP) ended I recognized a familiar feeling that relates to my experience leading NOLS wilderness expeditions. At the end of those expeditions, participants often reflected on what they couldn’t bring back from the wilderness, and some felt uneasy about returning to…Continue Reading Reflections on IPP and Returning to Work