Guest blog written by Lili Vessereau, Boris Houenou, Daniel Saka Mbumba, Daksh Baheti We are a team at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), enrolled in the Problem Driven Interactive Adaptation (PDIA) course taught by Professor Matt Andrews and Ms. Salimah Samji at HKS. As a team of development and policy practitioners, during Spring 2024, we used…Continue Reading Building Bridges to Economic Growth in Laramie, Wyoming
Guest blog written by Bibek Kandel, Sansar Dewan, Pratik Kunwar, Enitan Okediji “Not everything that matters is written down, it’s all in people’s heads and minds.” This very mantra, shared by Professor Matt Andrews during our initial Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) sessions in late January 2024, resonated deeply as we, Team Maya, embarked on…Continue Reading Navigating the Ukrainian Refugee Housing Crisis in MA using PDIA
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
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!
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
Guest blog by Wendy Koh, LEG’23 Throughout this course, I have gained valuable insights into the complexities of economic growth. Some key ideas and learnings that I will take away:…Continue Reading Economic Opportunities for Indigenous Communities in British Columbia
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
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
Guest blog by Parrish Spisz, IPP ’23 I need to tell the truth. I almost didn’t make it to this Harvard Kennedy School Implementing Public Policy (IPP) course. I glanced the first email announcing the course and deleted it. Another email was sent and I deleted it. A third email was sent. I read it…Continue Reading Taking Action to Reduce Poverty in Tempe, Arizona
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
