2025 Rappaport Policy Fellows
Name: Chet Agni
Graduate School: Harvard Kennedy School
Agency: Boston Equity and Inclusion Cabinet
Project Description: Chet will work in Boston’s Equity and Inclusion Cabinet. His primary responsibilities will include policy and legislative tracking at the city, state, and federal level, as well as evaluation and metrics tracking support for the Cabinet's seven departments.
Name: Christopher Baidoo
Graduate School: Boston College School of Social Work
Agency: Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate
Project Description: This summer Christopher will be working with the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate on two policy research projects: one mapping and identifying gaps in youth violence prevention programs in Massachusetts, and another examining child abuse prevention in an online world, including an analysis of governing laws and regulations.
Name: Emilia Charno
Graduate School: MIT
Agency: Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources
Project Description: This summer, Emilia will be working at the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources supporting the municipal adoption of networked geothermal systems across the Commonwealth. Specifically, she will draft a comprehensive blueprint report for municipal decision-makers using Framingham’s Geothermal Pilot Program as a primary case study. The report will offer actionable guidance on policy and regulatory environments, ownership models, stakeholder engagement design, and contextualized environmental justice priorities. With specific emphasis on Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover—eligible for $4 million in Merrimack Valley Renewal Fund support—this work aims to equip municipalities with the tools needed to evaluate and implement networked geothermal systems.
Name: Akash Chopra
Graduate School: Boston College Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences
Agency: Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Project Description: Akash will be working at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in the Office of Student and Family Support. He will support the Student Voice and Wellbeing grant by compiling research, outlining a related webpage, and advising on the planning of the 2026 Student Voice and Wellbeing Summit.
Name: Ali Epstein
Graduate School: Harvard Kennedy School
Agency: Boston Mayor’s Policy and Planning Group
Project Description: Ali's projects with the Boston Mayor's Policy and Planning Group will include strategies for revitalizing downtown Boston such as envisioning new use for vacant real estate, building a new office to recruit businesses to Boston, and designing efforts to launch a food cart program intended to expand pathways to economic mobility.
Name: Bernadette Hicks
Graduate School: Harvard Kennedy School
Agency: Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities
Project Description: Bernadette will assist envisioning the future of the Homelessness Diversion program, which aims to help families find housing instead of entering homeless shelters.
Name: Grace Kyei
Graduate School: University of Massachusetts Boston School of Nursing
Agency: Boston Public Health Commission
Project Description: Grace will be working at the Boston Public Health Commission in the Department of Child, Adolescent, and Family Health Bureau. She will conduct a comprehensive literature review and facilitate meaningful community engagement to support a competitive grant proposal aimed at addressing significant maternal health disparities affecting Boston's diverse communities.
Name: Stephane Labossiere
Graduate School: Northeastern University
Agency: Boston Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement and Massachusetts Office of Refugees and Immigrants
Project Description: Stephane is a doctoral student at Northeastern University. He will be working jointly with the Boston Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement and the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants on a number of projects focusing on the changing immigration landscape.
Name: Brian Le
Graduate School: MIT
Agency: Boston Department of Innovation and Technology
Project Description: Brian will work with Boston’s Department of Innovation and Technology and the Boston Licensing Team on transforming the permitting process to create a fast one-stop shop solution across all the different permitting needs.
Name: Sophie Lewis
Graduate School: Boston University
Agency: Massachusetts Executive Office of Education
Project Description: She will be working at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education on will be helping to research and design a bridge program that will connect high school seniors with no college plan to local community colleges to help them stay connected to education. This will involve an analysis of currently operating programs and engaging stakeholders to create a structured pilot that is open to the entire student body.
Name: Djoulissa Louis-Jean
Graduate School: Harvard Graduate School of Design
Agency: Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Project Description: She will be working at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in their Municipal Vulnerability Program. Her work will entail expanding the "Guides for Equitable and Actionable Resilience" (GEAR) webpage with resources to help communities prepare for climate impacts. Djoulissa will also engage in the development of a toolkit designed to guide health-based community organizations and service providers that work with vulnerable populations on extreme heat preparedness and recognizing and responding to heat illnesses. She will also be collaborating with the state's decarbonization team to identify the link between decarbonization efforts and public health, exploring how climate policies can protect vulnerable populations.
Name: Shelby Mueller
Graduate School: University of Massachusetts Boston School of Nursing
Agency: Boston Mayor’s Office of Women's Advancement
Project Description: Shelby will be working at the Boston’s Commission of Women’s Advancement updating and upgrading the city’s supports for their employees who choose to start and grow their families.
Name: Hugo Rengifo
Graduate School: Tufts University
Agency: Boston Department of Innovation and Technology
Project Description: This summer, Hugo will be working at the Boston Department of Innovation and Technology on projects dealing with digital equity.
Name: Grace Reynolds
Graduate School: Boston University School of Public Health
Agency: MassHealth
Project Description: Her project studies the impact of high heat days on acute health occurrences. Using Medicaid claims data, she’ll explore whether extreme heat leads to increased service use and examine how factors like pre-existing conditions, age, race, and ethnicity may shape these patterns. The goal is to help MassHealth better understand which populations are most vulnerable to heat-related health risks and to inform future policies that may improve support for those most affected.
Name: Hannah San Sebastian
Graduate School: Harvard Kennedy School
Agency: Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development
Project Description: Hannah will be working at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development. During the fellowship, Hannah will work on the development of the Business Front Door, a content repository of state resources servicing small and concept phase businesses.
Name: Harry Shanmugam
Graduate School: Harvard Medical School
Agency: MassHealth
Project Description: This summer will be working at MassHealth this summer. Harry will support MassHealth on issues of drug pricing, focusing on understanding strategies that different state Medicaid agencies are using to pay for particularly expensive medication and identifying opportunities that may be applicable in Massachusetts. His work will have a particular focus on cell and gene therapies and medications covered under the 340B drug pricing program.
Name: Jennifer Tan
Graduate School: Simmons School of Social Work
Agency: Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance
Project Description: Jennifer will be working at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance this summer on a joint pilot program developed between DTA and Massachusetts Department of Children & Families (DCF). The pilot works to create better outcomes for families who are clients of both agencies. Jennifer will work as a temporary project manager and provide structure in the pilot program, performing landscape analysis research, contributing as a thought partner.
Name: Andreas Theodoropoulos
Graduate School: Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy
Agency: The Massachusetts AI Hub
Project Description: Andreas will be working at the Massachusetts AI Hub this summer focused on building a stakeholder engagement tracker for the AI ecosystem within MA. The project will identify areas of cooperation between government, academia, and private businesses, helping the AI Hub drive innovation and collaboration across the Commonwealth.
Name: Jacob Winn
Graduate School: Harvard Kennedy School
Agency: The Lab @ MassDOT
Project Description: Jacob will work on a variety of projects focused on autonomous vehicle policy and regulatory frameworks for Massachusetts.
Name: Nancy Yee
Graduate School: Harvard Graduate School of Education
Agency: Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance
Project Description: Nancy will support the implementation of immediate-term recommendations from the Community & Executive Branch Engagement on Early Education and Care, while fostering inter-agency collaboration to identify additional opportunities for transformational change in the field. Her work will focus on advancing an EEC system that is affordable and accessible for families, values and fairly compensates educators, and helps providers build sustainable businesses that contribute to long-term stability across Massachusetts.