Linda Bilmes
Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government
Linda J. Bilmes is the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government. She is a one of the countrys foremost experts on public finance and budgetary issues, with a particular focus on the costs of war, veterans affairs, and the civil service. She has written widely, appeared on many national radio and television broadcasts, testified before Congress, and coauthored the New York Times bestseller The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. Professor Bilmes has an M.B.A. and B.A. from Harvard University.
Daniel Egan
President
Daniel P. Egan is President of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island (AICU Rhode Island) since 2007. He previously served as chief of staff in the Office of the Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences in the Division of Biology and Medicine at Brown University. He has also served as vice president for government relations at the Hospital Association of Rhode Island and at the local firm Trion Communications, associate director of athletics at Brown University, assistant director of athletic media relations at Providence College, and staff to the Mayor of the City of Warwick for two administrations.
Archon Fung
Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, John F. Kennedy School of Government
Archon Fung is a Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School. His research explores how citizen participation, public deliberation, and government transparency contribute to democratic governance. He has published numerous books, journal articles, and mainstream media pieces. Fung co-founded Participedia, a collaborative project to gather information about experiments in participatory governance from around the world. He is also director of the Transparency Policy Project, an effort to research and improve systems that promote government transparency.
Alan Harlam
Director of Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship, Swearer Center for Public Service
Alan Harlam is the Director of Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship at Browns Swearer Center for Public Service, which provides resources, networking, and funding to support student initiatives on and off campus. Harlam co-founded and directs the Social Innovation Initiative (SII), which expands Browns curricular and extra-curricular resources for student exploration and experience of social entrepreneurship. He also leads the Social Innovation Fellowship, a three-semester program that supports students through the process of launching or growing a social venture with funding, mentoring, and skills development. Harlam is also an adjunct lecturer in public policy who teaches an introductory course in social entrepreneurship and an action learning course for social entrepreneurs. His work on social entrepreneurship is informed by 20 years as a consultant, turnaround investor and manager, and community leader.
Francis Leazes
Professor, Political Science
Director, Public Administration
Francis J. Leazes Jr. is a Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Rhode Island College, where he has taught since the 1980s. He helped establish and then became director of the cooperative Rhode Island College/University of Rhode Island M.P.A. Program for 20 years and currently directs the newly established undergraduate degree program in Public Administration at Rhode Island College.
Jessica Mulligan
Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management Program
Dr. Jessica Mulligan is assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at Providence College. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University. Trained as a medical anthropologist, her current research project uses life history interviews to explore the health and financial impacts of insurance coverage on the formerly uninsured.
Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz’s research focuses on public policy, inequality, and political geography. Professor Pearson-Merkowitz’s research has appeared in some of the top political science journals.
Alex Remington
M.P.P., Kennedy School of Government
Alex Remington is a recent graduate of the M.P.P. program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has worked as a reporter for the voting rights project at News21, as a writer for the Harvard-based Journalist’s Resource, and as an assistant at the Washington Post. He writes about baseball for Fangraphs and is the managing editor at Braves Journal, a popular Atlanta Braves blog. Previously, he wrote for Yahoo! Sports and the Huffington Post. Alex graduated from Yale University with a bachelors degree in political science and Russian.
Jessica Stern
Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights
Lecturer, Harvard College
Jessica Stern is a Lecturer in Government at Harvard University, a Fellow at the FXB Center for Human Rights at Harvard’s School of Public Health, and an Advanced Academic Candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Psychoanalysis. She is also a member of Hoover Institution’s Task Force on National Security and Law. She is also the author of several books and numerous articles on terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.