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Congressman Seth Moulton (MA-6th) and Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll joined nearly 200 Harvard alumni on June 18 for a convening marking the impact of 20 years of the Greater Boston Applied Field Lab, a landmark experiential learning program that highlights the Kennedy School’s approach to public leadership that blends rigorous scholarship, hands-on work with local practitioners, and direct engagement with policymakers.

The symposium celebrated the 20th anniversary of the program, which is supported by the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation for Greater Boston, the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and the Bloomberg Center for Cities. Since the Field Lab’s inception, nearly 600 Harvard graduate students and their faculty advisors have had the opportunity to collaborate with nearly 50 government partners on over 100 different projects across the region.

The symposium itself was distinctively experiential. Instead of traditional panel discussions, the symposium hosted interactive “mini workshops,” where students worked directly with local officials on city and state problems, and “participatory panels,” where panelists discussed their topics with smaller groups of attendees. “We are an experiential program, so we tried to reimagine the symposium to be more experiential,” said Linda Bilmes, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance and Field Lab Faculty Chair. The organizing team, including Adjunct Lecturer Brian Iammartino, Associate Professor Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Program Director Maja Niksic, and Faculty Assistant Emma Green, and with help from many alumni including former Teaching Fellows Bran Shim and Natasha Lawrence, worked for months to scope these workshops and panels. “There was a ton of energy. The room was buzzing,” she said.

Workshops

  • Everett, MA: Navigating a proposed redevelopment of a 100-acre former ExxonMobil tank farm (Matt Lattanzi, Planning & Development, and Jay Monty, Transportation & Mobility)
  • Hatfield, MA: Maintaining a small, rural school district long-term (Andrew Levine, Town Administrator/alum)
  • Boston, MA: Governing a citywide response to climate change (Chris Osgood, Boston Climate Resilience, and Ksenia Acquaviva, Boston Planning/alum)
  • MA Executive Office for Administration and Finance: Developing innovative financing tools for housing and economic development (Bran Shim/alum)
  • MA Executive Office of Economic Development: Harnessing AI to help small businesses start, scale, and grow (Jeanney Liu/alum)

 

Participatory Panels

  • Matthew Barter (Police Lieutenant, City of Manchester, NH) on AI in policing
  • Christina Marin (alum/former MBTA Director of Treasury Services and Public Private Partnership Finance) on innovative strategies in capital financing and budgeting
  • Samantha Silverberg (alum/former Deputy Assistant to U.S. President Biden for Infrastructure Implementation) on federal impacts on state and local infrastructure investment
  • Philip Tizzani (alum/Professional Staff Member, U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee Democrats) on budgeting through different administrations and turbulent times
  • Mitch Weiss (HBS Professor and former Chief of Staff to Boston Mayor Tom Menino) on using AI in state and local government

Over the past two decades, student teams have analyzed the potential for Inclusionary Zoning to provide more affordable housing in Revere and Lynn, helped the City of Somerville become one of the best run cities in Massachusetts, studied alternative transit options in Everett, and helped Boston to expand ferry access to the Harbor Islands and implement the Bike Hubway. Students have also worked to reimagine zoning in Newburyport, worked with Salem to assist small businesses during COVID-19, and partnered with dozens of local communities on city operations, budget reform, infrastructure finance, and urban services including trash collection, recycling, parking, and street lighting. The Field Lab is also undertaking an updated analysis of linking North and South stations in Boston, which would have a transformative effect on the Massachusetts economy. The study is planned to be finalized later this summer.

Nearly two-thirds of Field Lab alumni have gone on to work in local, state, or federal government or the nonprofit sector, many of them in the cities where the Field Lab has led projects.

“For twenty years, our students have rolled up their sleeves and worked alongside local governments across Greater Boston, learning firsthand how to tackle complex public challenges,” said Professor Bilmes. “That experience has shaped their understanding of public service—and prepared many of them to step directly into roles in city and state government. I’m incredibly grateful to the Rappaports, the Taubman Center, the Bloomberg Initiative, and our other supporters, our dedicated city partners, and my colleagues and staff at vlog. And I am so proud of our students, who have demonstrated that their commitment and insight continue to make a lasting difference.”

“I am a personal witness of the transformative power of the Field Lab. That is real impact,” said Congressman Seth Moulton, who spoke at the symposium. Congressman Moulton has been a long-time partner of the Field Lab, working with students on projects including rail transit, flood mitigation, and other topics.

Lieutenant Governor Driscoll, who collaborated with the program when she was mayor of Salem, said, “We have a saying in the administration that none of us are as smart as all of us, and we’re pretty lucky that we live in a place that has lots of smart people like Linda who are committed to solving problems.”

“I don’t think it’s at all hyperbole to say that the Field Lab learning Linda launched is the biggest innovation in teaching at the Kennedy School since the adoption of the case method,” said Jeffrey Liebman, the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Taubman Center.

Phyllis Rappaport, who has generously supported the program with her husband, Jerry, who passed away in 2021, said, “Jerry and I picked good partners here at the Kennedy School when we embraced Linda’s work. Jerry believed with every fiber of his being, that one person could make a difference and that real changes begin not in Washington but in our own cities and neighborhoods.”

About the Greater Boston Applied Field Lab

The Greater Boston Applied Field Lab is an academic experiential program. It includes semester-long courses MLD-412 (Advanced Applied Field Lab, focusing on local government budgets, finance and operations) taught by Linda Bilmes and, more recently, DPI-325 (Urban Politics Field Lab) taught by Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, as well as summer fellowships and research opportunities. These courses partner with local governments to provide real-world experiences to students and a pathway for the next generation of innovative civic leaders. Students undertake complex projects in the fields of budget and finance, public-private partnerships, urban decision-making, economic development, operations management, and system efficiency in Greater Boston. The MLD-412 course has been running for 20 years. Many of the alumni now working in state and local government return as “client partners,” working with current students on issues facing their communities.

The Field Lab has worked with cities in Greater Boston including Arlington, Billerica, Boston, Brockton, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Gloucester, Haverhill, Hingham, Hull, Lynn, New Bedford, Newburyport, Newton, Plymouth, Provincetown, Revere, Salem, and Somerville, as well as Massachusetts statewide and regional agencies/institutions includingMA 6th Congressional District (Seth Moulton), MA State Infrastructure Bank, Boston Public Schools, MBTA, Massport, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Region 1, MassDOT (Massachusetts Department of Transportation), MA Department of Revenue, MA Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Perkins School for the Blind, and Somerville Public Schools.

With support from the Bloomberg Center for Cities, students have been able to undertake projects wider afield, including Hartford, CT, Manchester, NH, Mount Vernon, NY, Portland, ME, Providence, RI, Rochester, NY, Seabright, NJ,  Trenton, NJ, Austin, TX, Dearborn, MI, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Hayward, CA, Long Beach, CA, Miami, FL, Phoenix, AZ, St. Petersburg, FL, Salt Lake City, UT, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.