Harvard Kennedy School

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public administration, and international development, four doctoral degrees, and various executive education programs. It conducts research in subjects relating to politics, government, international affairs, and economics. HKS had an endowment of $1.7 billion. It is a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA), a global consortium of schools that trains leaders in international affairs.

The primary campus of Harvard Kennedy School is on John F. Kennedy Street in Cambridge. The main buildings overlook the Charles River and are southwest of Harvard Yard and Harvard Square, on the site of a former MBTA Red Line trainyard. The School is adjacent to the public riverfront John F. Kennedy Memorial Park.

Harvard Kennedy School alumni include 21 heads of state or government from around the world. Alumni also include cabinet officials, military leaders, heads of central banks, and legislators.

Founding
Harvard Kennedy School was founded as the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration in 1936 with a $2 million gift (equivalent to roughly $43 million as of 2023) from Lucius Littauer, an 1878 Harvard College alumnus, businessman, former U.S. Congressman, and the first coach of the Harvard Crimson football team.

Harvard Kennedy School's shield was designed to express the national purpose of the school and was modeled after the U.S. shield. The School drew its initial faculty from Harvard's existing government and economics departments, and welcomed its first students in 1937.

The School's original home was in the Littauer Center, north of Harvard Yard, which is now home to Harvard University's Economics Department. The first students at the Graduate School were called Littauer Fellows, participating in a one-year course listing which later developed into the school's mid-career Master in Public Administration program. In the 1960s, the School began to develop its current public policy degree and course curriculum associated with its Master in Public Policy program.

Renaming and move
In 1966, three years following the assassination of U.S. President and 1940 Harvard College alumnus John F. Kennedy, the school was renamed in his honor.

In 1966, concurrent with the school's renaming, the Harvard Institute of Politics was created with Neustadt as its founding director. Harvard Institute of Politics has been housed on the school campus since 1978, and today sponsors and hosts a series of programs, speeches and study groups for Harvard undergraduates and graduate students. Along with major Harvard Kennedy School events, the Institute of Politics holds the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, named in honor of John F. Kennedy Jr., in Harvard Kennedy School's Littauer Building.

By 1978, the faculty, including presidential scholar and adviser Richard Neustadt, a foreign policy scholar and later dean of the School, Graham Allison, Richard Zeckhauser, and others consolidated the school's programs and research centers at the present Harvard Kennedy School campus. The first new building opened on the southern half of the former Eliot Shops site in October 1978. Under the terms of Littauer's original grant, the current campus also features a building called Littauer.

Rebranding and campus expansion
In late 2007, the Kennedy School of Government announced that while its official name was not being altered, it was rebranding itself as Harvard Kennedy School effective Fall 2008. The goal was to make clearer the school's connection with Harvard. It was also thought that the new branding would reduce confusion with other entities named after Kennedy, including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Kennedy Library in Boston. The rebranding had the support of John F. Kennedy's brother, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Caroline Kennedy, the former president's daughter.

In 2012, Harvard Kennedy School announced a $500 million fundraising campaign, $120 million of which was to be used to significantly expand the Harvard Kennedy School campus, adding 91,000 square feet of space including six new classrooms, a new kitchen, and dining facility, offices and meeting spaces, a new student lounge and study space, more collaboration and active learning spaces, and a redesigned central courtyard. Groundbreaking commenced on May 7, 2015, and the project was completed in late 2017. The new Harvard Kennedy School campus opened in December 2017.

From 2004 to 2015, Harvard Kennedy School's dean was David T. Ellwood, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official in the Clinton administration.

In 2015, Douglas Elmendorf, a former director of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, was named both dean of the Harvard Kennedy School and the school's Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy. Elmendorf announced in September 2023 that he would step down as dean at the end of the academic year 2023/2024.

Degrees
Harvard Kennedy School offers four master's degree programs. The two-year Master in Public Policy (MPP) program focuses on policy analysis, economics, management, ethics, statistics and negotiations in the public sector. There are three separate Master in Public Administration (MPA) programs: a one-year Mid-Career Program (MC/MPA) intended for professionals who are more than seven years removed from their college graduation; a two-year MPA program intended for professionals who have an additional graduate degree and are more recently out of school; and a two-year international development track (MPA/ID) focused on development studies with a strong emphasis on economics and quantitative analysis.

Members of the mid-career MPA class also include Mason Fellows, who are public and private executives from developing countries. Mason Fellows typically constitute about 50 percent of the incoming class of Mid-Career MPA candidates. The Mason cohort is the most diverse at Harvard in terms of nationalities and ethnicities represented. It is named after Edward Sagendorph Mason, the former Harvard professor who, from 1947 to 1958, was dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Public Administration, now known as Harvard Kennedy School.

In addition to the master's programs, Harvard Kennedy School administers three doctoral programs. Ph.D. degrees are awarded in public policy, in social policy in conjunction with Harvard's departments of government and sociology, and in health policy in conjunction with FAS and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Joint and concurrent degrees
Harvard Kennedy School has a number of joint and concurrent degree programs within Harvard and with other leading universities, which allow students to receive multiple degrees in a reduced period of time. Joint and current students spend at least one year in residence in Cambridge taking courses. Harvard Kennedy School joint degree programs are run with Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Graduate School of Design, and concurrent programs are offered with Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School.

Beyond Harvard, HKS has concurrent degree arrangements with other law, business, and medical schools, including the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Law School, Duke University School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, New York University School of Law, Northwestern University School of Law, Stanford Law School, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, University of Michigan Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Yale Law School, and UCSF School of Medicine.

Abroad, Harvard Kennedy School offers a dual degree with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

HKS courses
Harvard Kennedy School maintains six academic divisions each headed by a faculty chair. In addition to offerings in the Harvard Kennedy School course listing, students are eligible to cross-register for courses at the other graduate and professional schools at Harvard and at the MIT Sloan School of Management, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. MPP coursework is focused on one of five areas, called a Policy Area of Concentration (PAC), and includes a year-long research seminar in their second year, which includes a master's thesis called a Policy Analysis Exercise.

Rankings
Harvard Kennedy School has routinely ranked as the best, or among the best, of the world's public policy graduate schools. U.S. News & World Report ranks it the best graduate school for social policy, the best for health policy, and second best for public policy analysis. In 2015 rankings, Kennedy School is ranked first in the subcategory of health policy and second in the category of public policy analysis and social policy.

Kennedy's School's foreign affairs programs have consistently ranked at the top or near the top of Foreign Policy magazine's Inside the Ivory Tower survey, which lists the world's top twenty academic international relations programs at the undergraduate, Master's, and Ph.D. levels. In 2012, for example, the survey ranked Kennedy School first overall for doctoral and undergraduate programs and third overall in the Master's category.

Student organizations
Harvard Kennedy School maintains a range of student activities, including interest-driven student caucuses, the student government (Kennedy School Student Government, known as KSSG), student-edited policy journals including Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, Kennedy School Review, the Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy, a student newspaper (The Citizen), and a number of student athletic groups.

Students can join the Harvard Graduate Council, which is the centralized student government for the twelve graduate and professional schools of Harvard University. The Harvard Graduate Council is responsible for advocating student concerns to central administrators, including the president of Harvard University, provost, deans of students, and deans for the nearly 15,000 graduate and professional students across the twelve schools, organizing large university-wide initiatives and events, administering and providing funding for university-wide student groups, and representing the Harvard graduate student population to other universities and external organizations. Harvard Graduate Council is known for spearheading the "One Harvard" movement, which aims to bring all of Harvard's graduate schools together through closer collaboration and social interaction.

Centers
Harvard Kennedy School is home to 14 centers, including:
 * Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
 * Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
 * Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
 * Center for International Development
 * Center for Public Leadership
 * Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics
 * Institute of Politics
 * Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
 * Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government
 * Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston
 * Taubman Center for State and Local Government
 * Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
 * Joint Center for Housing Studies
 * Women and Public Policy Program

The majority of centers offer research and academic fellowships through which fellows can engage in research projects, lead study groups into specific topics and share their experiences with industry and government with the student body.

Controversies
Under Dean Elmendorf, the school has tried to focus its engagement across the political spectrum, which has caused controversy at times. The school came under criticism for offering a fellowship to Chelsea Manning on September 13, 2017. It then publicly rescinded the offer on September 15, 2017, after CIA director Mike Pompeo canceled a speaking engagement at Harvard and sent a letter condemning the university for awarding the fellowship.

A 2021 investigative report by student group Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard found that many of the centers' climate initiatives were funded in part by fossil fuel companies, and that some of the centers had allegedly taken several steps to cover up that fact.

The Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy in 2022 invited Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, a leading global human rights organizations, to join it as a senior fellow. The Kennedy School eventually rescinded the invitation to Roth because Human Rights Watch had investigated the State of Israel's treatment of Palestinians and concluded in 2021 that it meets the threshold for the "crime of apartheid". After condemnation by faculty, students, The American Civil Liberties Union and others, the dean of the school reversed this decision.

Awards
The Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Public Service is awarded to "a graduating student whose commitment, activities, and contributions to public service are extraordinary". Several other awards are also awarded on Class Day annually at the end of May.

Notable faculty

 * Graham Allison
 * Alan A. Altshuler
 * Jacinda Ardern
 * Mary Jo Bane
 * David J. Barron
 * Jacqueline Bhabha
 * Linda Bilmes
 * Robert Blendon
 * Derek Bok
 * George Borjas
 * R. Nicholas Burns
 * Felipe Calderón
 * Albert Carnesale
 * Ashton Carter
 * Antonia Handler Chayes
 * William C. Clark
 * Richard Clarke
 * Susan P. Crawford
 * David Cutler
 * Michael Dukakis
 * David Ellwood
 * Jeffrey Frankel
 * Jason Furman
 * Marshall Ganz
 * David Gergen
 * Edward Glaeser
 * Robert R. Glauber
 * Stephen Goldsmith
 * Ricardo Hausmann
 * J. Bryan Hehir
 * Ronald Heifetz
 * A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.
 * John P. Holdren
 * Swanee Hunt
 * Michael Ignatieff
 * Sheila Jasanoff
 * Christopher Jencks
 * Alex Jones
 * Dale Jorgenson
 * Juliette Kayyem
 * Alexander Keyssar
 * Alexandra Killewald
 * Robert Z. Lawrence
 * Jennifer Lerner
 * Viktor Mayer-Schönberger
 * Joseph Newhouse
 * Pippa Norris
 * Joseph Nye
 * Rafael O'Ferrall
 * Meghan O'Sullivan
 * George Papandreou
 * Roger B. Porter
 * Michael Porter
 * Samantha Power
 * Lant Pritchett
 * Robert Putnam
 * Carmen M. Reinhart
 * Leni Robredo
 * Dani Rodrik
 * Todd Rogers (behavioral scientist)
 * Kevin Rudd
 * John Ruggie
 * Juan Manuel Santos
 * Frederic M. Scherer
 * Jeffrey L. Seglin
 * Sarah Sewall
 * Kathryn Sikkink
 * Lawrence Summers
 * Dennis Frank Thompson
 * Stephen Walt
 * Marilyn Waring
 * Martin Weitzman
 * Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby
 * John P. White
 * William Julius Wilson
 * Richard Zeckhauser
 * Dorothy Zinberg
 * Jonathan Zittrain
 * Robert Zoellick

Notable alumni
Harvard Kennedy School has over 63,000 alumni, many of whom have gone on to notable careers around the world in government, business, public policy, and other fields. Its alumni include 20 heads of state and dozens of leaders of government department and agencies, non-profit public policy organizations, the military, thought leadership and advocacy, academia, and other fields:

Heads of government and state

 * Felipe Calderón (MPA '00), former President of Mexico
 * Miguel de la Madrid (MPA '65), former President of Mexico
 * Carlos Salinas de Gortari (MPA '73, PhD '76), former President of Mexico
 * Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (MPA '02), former President and Prime Minister of Mongolia
 * Abdiweli Gaas (MPA '99), former Prime Minister of Somalia
 * John Haglelgam (MPA '93), former President of the Federated States of Micronesia
 * Lee Hsien Loong (MPA '80), former Prime Minister of Singapore
 * Daniel Noboa (MCMPA '20), President of Ecuador
 * Tharman Shanmugaratnam (MPA), current President of Singapore
 * José María Figueres Olsen (MPA '91), former President of Costa Rica and former World Economic Forum CEO
 * Maia Sandu (MPA '10), current President and former Prime Minister of Moldova
 * Juan Manuel Santos (MPA '81), former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
 * Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (MPA '71), former President of Liberia and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
 * Frederick Sumaye (MPA '07), former Prime Minister of Tanzania
 * Tshering Tobgay (MPA '04), former Prime Minister and current leader of People's Democratic Party in Bhutan
 * Pierre Trudeau (MA '45), former Prime Minister of Canada
 * Donald Tsang (MPA '82), former Chief Executive of Hong Kong
 * Morgan Tsvangirai ('02), former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
 * Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé (MPA '88), former President of Bolivia
 * Jamil Mahuad Witt (MPA '89), former President of Ecuador
 * Lawrence Wong (MPA), Prime Minister of Singapore

Government administrators and officials

 * Rizwan Ahmed (MPA), former Maritime Secretary of Pakistan
 * Nripendra Misra (MPA), former IAS officer and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India
 * Yoshimasa Hayashi (MPA '94), Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
 * Yam Ah Mee (MPA '91), chief executive director, People's Association in Singapore
 * Sartaj Aziz (MNA), served in several Ministerial positions in Pakistan
 * Phillip Jones (MPA '21), Politician, Mayor of Newport News, Virginia
 * Tariq Bajwa (MPA), former Finance Secretary of Pakistan
 * Nisrin Barwari (MPA '99), former Minister of Municipalities and Public Works of Iraq
 * Gankhuurai Battungalag, Director General of the Department for Europe of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia
 * Charles Blanchard (MPP '85), former General Counsel of the Army and General Counsel of the Air Force
 * J. Richard Blankenship (MPA '08), former U.S. ambassador to The Bahamas
 * André Boisclair (MPA '05), former leader of Parti Québécois and former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration of Quebec, Canada
 * Nick Boles (MPP '89), former Member of Parliament for Grantham and Stamford and former director of Policy Exchange in the United Kingdom
 * Emilia Boncodin (MPA '86), former Secretary of Budget and Management for the Philippines
 * Anna Escobedo Cabral (MPA '90), former Treasurer of the United States
 * Piper Campbell (MPA '99), former U.S. ambassador to Mongolia and Chargé d'affaires ad interim at the U.S. Mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
 * Rajkumar Chellaraj (MPA '86), former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Administration
 * Frank Chikane (MPA '95), member, African National Congress and advisor to President of South Africa
 * Aneesh Chopra (MPP '97), former U.S. Chief Technology Officer
 * Albert Chua (MPA '00), former Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations
 * Henry Cisneros (MPA '73), former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
 * Mark Daly (MPA, '11), member, Ireland's Seanad Éireann
 * Božidar Đelić (MPA '91), former Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Minister of Finance of Serbia
 * Stephen Donnelly (MPA '08), Ireland Minister of Health and member, Teachta Dála, representing Wicklow
 * Shaun Donovan (MPA '95), former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Office of Management and Budget director
 * Theodore L. Eliot Jr. (MPA '56), former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan
 * Robert S. Gelbard (MPA '79), former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and Bolivia
 * Héctor Gramajo (MPA '95), former Defense Minister of Guatemala
 * Liu He (MPA '95), Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China
 * Teo Chee Hean (MPA '86), Coordinating Minister for National Security for Singapore
 * Keith Hennessey (MPP '94), former National Economic Council director
 * Rafael Hui (MPA '83), former Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong
 * Muhammad Ibrahim (MPA '93), former Central Bank of Malaysia governor
 * Natalie Jaresko (MPP '89), former Ukrainian Minister of Finance
 * Vuk Jeremić (MPA '03), former President of the United Nations General Assembly and former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Serbia
 * Ajay Narayan Jha, former Indian Administrative Service officer, former Expenditure Secretary, and former Finance Secretary of India
 * Daniel J. Jones, lead investigator for U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA Torture
 * Mitzi Johnson (MPA '13), former Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives
 * Lim Hng Kiang (MPA '85), former Minister for Trade and Industry of Singapore
 * Ban Ki-moon (MPA '84), former Secretary-General of the United Nations and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea
 * Raymond Kelly (MPA '84), New York City Police Commissioner
 * Rajive Kumar (MPA), Indian Administrative Service officer and former Chief Secretary of Government of Uttar Pradesh in India
 * Andrew Leigh (PhD '04), Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury for Australia and former Australian House of Representatives member
 * Nabiel Makarim (MPA '84), former Minister of Environment and Forestry for Indonesia
 * Mark McClellan (MPA '91), former U.S. Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
 * Sanjay Mitra (MPA), IAS officer and former Defence Secretary of India
 * Toshimitsu Motegi (MPP '83), Secretary-General of Liberal Democratic Party and former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Japan
 * George Muñoz (MPP '78), former Assistant Secretary and CFO of the U.S. Department of Treasury and former president and CEO of OPIC
 * Andrew Natsios (MPA '79), former U.S. Agency for International Development administrator and U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan
 * Amon Nikoi (MPA '56), former Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Bank of Ghana governor, and Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations
 * Patrick Nip (MPA '01), former Secretary for the Civil Service of Hong Kong
 * Christine Nixon (MPA '85), former chief police commissioner for Victoria, Australia
 * Herbert S. Okun (MPA '59), former U.S. Ambassador to East Germany and former U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations
 * Nóirín O'Sullivan (Exec '07), former national police commissioner for Ireland
 * Marcus Peacock (MPP '86), former Deputy Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
 * Brune Poirson, Secretary of State of France
 * Angelo Reyes (MPA '90), Secretary of Energy of the Philippines and former Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines
 * Jesse Robredo (MPA '99), Secretary of Interior and Local Government of the Philippines
 * Henry Rotich (MPA '), Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury of Kenya
 * Pete Rouse (MPA '77), former White House Chief of Staff
 * Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, Executive Governor of Kaduna State in Nigeria, former Minister of FCT, and Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises of Nigeria
 * T. N. Seshan (MPA '68), former IAS officer and former Chief Election Commissioner and Cabinet Secretary of India
 * Yasuhisa Shiozaki (MPA '82), former Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan
 * Corazon Soliman (MPA '98), former Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development of the Philippines
 * T. S. R. Subramanian (MPA), former Indian Administrative Service officer and Cabinet Secretary of India
 * Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera (MPA), Commerce Secretary of Pakistan
 * Nancy Sutley (MPP '86), White House Council on Environmental Quality director
 * Syahrir (MPA '80, PhD '83), economic adviser, Republic of Indonesia's Council of Presidential Advisors
 * Mark E. Talisman (1972), U.S. congressional aide and lobbyist
 * William B. Taylor Jr. (MPP '77), U.S. ambassador to Ukraine
 * Conrad Tillard (born 1964), Baptist minister, radio host, author, civil rights activist, and politician
 * John Tsang (MPA '82), Financial Secretary of Hong Kong
 * Paul Volcker (MA '51, GSPA), former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve and U.S. presidential economic advisor
 * Solomon Areda Waktolla (MPA '13 and LLM'14), Judge at United Nations Dispute Tribunal, Judge of the Administrative Tribunal of the African Development Bank. Former Deputy  chief justice of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia and member of Permanent Court of Arbitration at  Hague  Netherlands
 * Yin Yong (MPA), mayor of Beijing
 * Adolfo Aguilar Zínser (MPA '78), former national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations for Mexico

Elected federal officials

 * Andrea Álvarez Marín (MPA '21), member of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica
 * Ami Ayalon (MPA '92), former member of Israeli Knesset and Shin Bet director
 * Ed Balls (MPA '90), former British Member of the Parliament, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
 * Doug Bereuter (MPA '73), former U.S. Congressman for Nebraska's 1st congressional district
 * Brendan Boyle (MPP '05), U.S. Congressman for Pennsylvania's 2nd congressional district
 * Katherine Clark (MPA '97), U.S. Representative, Massachusetts's 5th congressional district
 * Gerry Connolly (MPA '79), U.S. Congressman, Virginia's 11th congressional district
 * Dan Crenshaw (MPA '17), U.S. Congressman, Texas's 2nd congressional district
 * David Cunliffe (MPA '95), Labour Party leader in Parliament of New Zealand
 * John Fetterman (MPP '99) – U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and former Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania
 * Roy Folkman (MPA '13) – member, Israeli Knesset
 * Alan Grayson (MPP '83), former U.S. Congressman, Florida's 8th congressional district
 * Katherine Harris (MPA '97), former Congresswoman, Florida's 13th congressional district and former Secretary of State of Florida
 * Brian Higgins (MPA '96), U.S. Congressman, New York's 26th congressional district
 * Steve Horn (MPA '55), former U.S. Congressman, California's 38th congressional district
 * Shane Jones (MPA '91), former member, Parliament of New Zealand, and former Minister of Building and Construction of New Zealand
 * James Langevin (MPA '94), former U.S. Congressman, Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district
 * Stephen Lynch (MPA '99), U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts's 8th congressional district
 * Dan Maffei (MPP '95), former U.S. Congressman, New York's 24th congressional district
 * Jim Moody (MPA '67), former U.S. Congressman, Wisconsin's 5th congressional district
 * Taku Otsuka (MPP '05), a member of the House of Representatives of Japan
 * Francis Pangilinan (MPA '98), Senator and the Majority Leader of the Senate of the Philippines
 * Yohanan Plesner (MPA '04), member, Israeli Knesset
 * Larry Pressler (MPA '66), former U.S. Senator from South Dakota
 * William Proxmire (MPA '48), former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
 * Jack Reed (MPP '73), U.S. Senator from Rhode Island
 * Joe Sestak (MPA '80, PhD '84), former U.S. Congressman, Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district
 * Rob Simmons (MPA '79), former U.S. Congressman, Connecticut's 2nd congressional district
 * Ralf Stegner (MPA '89), former leader of the Social Democratic Party in Germany
 * Peter G. Torkildsen (MPA '90), former U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts's 6th congressional district and former chair of Massachusetts Republican Party
 * Robert Torricelli (MPA '80), former U.S. Senator from New Jersey
 * Chris Van Hollen (MPP '85), U.S. Senator from Maryland
 * David Wilhelm (MPP '90), campaign manager, Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign and former Democratic National Committee chairman

Elected state and municipal officials

 * Jeffrey Amestoy (MPA), Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court and Vermont Attorney General. As Chief Justice, authored the opinion in Baker v. Vermont, 744 A.2d 864 (Vt. 1999), which held that the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples violated the Vermont Constitution.
 * Bob Anthony (MPA), Oklahoma Corporation Commission member
 * Robert Castelli (MPA '96), former member, New York State Assembly
 * Jacqueline Y. Collins (MPA '01), member, Illinois Senate, representing the 16th district
 * Joseph Curtatone (MPA '11), former mayor, Somerville, Massachusetts
 * Fernando Martín García (MPP '74), former New Hampshire State Representative
 * Marilinda Garcia (MPA '10), member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives
 * Paul Heroux, (MPA '11), Bristol County, Massachusetts sheriff, former Attleboro, Massachusetts mayor, and former Massachusetts State Representative
 * Mark Levine (MPP '95), Manhattan borough president and former New York City Councilman
 * Elias Mudzuri (MPA ), former Mayor of Harare, Zimbabwe
 * Charles A. Murphy, (MPA '02), member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee chairman
 * Naheed Nenshi (MPP '98), former mayor of Calgary, Alberta
 * Barry T. Smitherman (MPA), member of the Texas Railroad Commission
 * Kevin White (MA '57, GSPA), former Mayor of Boston
 * Anthony A. Williams (MPP '87), former Mayor of Washington, D.C.
 * Anthony Winza Probowo (MPA'2024), former Member of Parliament of Jakarta, Indonesia

Academia

 * William Alonso (MPP '56), economist, former director of Harvard Center for Population Studies
 * Bernadette Atuahene (MPA '02), property law scholar, James E. Jones Chair at the University of Wisconsin Law School
 * Lawrence S. Bacow (MPP '76, PhD '76), former Harvard University president, former Tufts University president, former MIT chancellor
 * Steve Charnovitz (MPP '83), international law professor, George Washington University Law School
 * Ronald A. Heifetz (MPA '83), co-founder, Center for Public Leadership, and public leadership lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School
 * Steve Horn (MPA '55), former president of California State University, Long Beach
 * Ira Jackson (MPA '86), dean, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University
 * Nancy Koehn (MPP), author, historian, and Harvard Business School business history professor
 * Mark Lilla (MPP '80), professor of humanities, Columbia University
 * Hollis Robbins (MPP '90), dean of humanities, University of Utah
 * Mark Schuster (MPP '88), dean and founding CEO, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
 * Stephen Joel Trachtenberg (MPA '66), former president, George Washington University
 * William E. Trueheart (MPA '73), former president, Bryant University
 * Jonathan Zittrain (MPA '95), professor of international law, Harvard Law School and co-founder of Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Arts

 * Will Butler (MPA '17), musician and former member of Arcade Fire
 * Ashley Judd (MPA '10), actress and activist
 * Hill Harper (MPA '92), actor and author
 * Thor Steingraber (MPA '09), opera director
 * Damian Woetzel (MPA '07), former principal dancer, New York City Ballet

Business

 * Rune Bjerke (MPA '97), CEO, DNB ASA
 * Gregory C. Carr (MPP '86), founder, Boston Technology
 * Leonard S. Coleman Jr. (MPA '75), former president of the National League
 * Benjamin Fernandes (Exec. Ed'17), Tanzanian entrepreneur
 * Debra L. Lee (MPP '80), President and CEO, Black Entertainment Television
 * Daniel Mudd (MPA '86), former president and CEO of U.S. Fannie Mae
 * Carolina Müller-Möhl (Woman's Leadership Board), businesswoman, philanthropist and women's rights activist
 * Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg (MPA '71), founder, president, and CEO of Strategic Investment Group
 * Greg Rosenbaum (MPP '77), CEO, Empire Kosher Poultry, Inc.
 * Peter Sands (MPA '88), Group CEO, Standard Chartered
 * Klaus Schwab (MPA '67), founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum
 * Faryar Shirzad (MPP '89), managing director, Goldman Sachs, former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor
 * Chris Voss, adjunct professor at McDonough School of Business

Media

 * Malik Siraj Akbar (MPA, '16), editor-in-chief of The Baloch Hal, exiled Pakistani journalist
 * Kevin Corke (MPA '04), White House Correspondent, Fox News
 * Komla Dumor (MPA,'03), television news presenter, BBC World News and Africa Business Report
 * Justin Fox (born 1964), financial journalist, commentator, and writer
 * Caroline Glick (MPP '00), deputy managing editor, The Jerusalem Post
 * Wajahat Saeed Khan, Pakistani journalist for Dunya News and NBC News
 * Mark A. R. Kleiman (MPP, PhD '85), author
 * Kaj Larsen (MPP '07), former U.S. Navy SEAL, journalist for Vice News
 * Dambisa Moyo (MPA '07), economist and author
 * Bill O'Reilly (MPA '96), political commentator
 * Andrew Sullivan (MPA, PhD '90), journalist, The Atlantic

Military

 * John C. Acton (Exec '05) – retired United States Coast Guard rear admiral who serves as the Director of Operations Coordination for DHS
 * John R. Allen Jr. (Exec '85) – retired United States Air Force brigadier general and highly decorated command pilot
 * William J. Begert (Exec '95) – served as commander, Pacific Air Forces, and Air Component Commander for the Commander, United States Pacific Command
 * Franklin J. Blaisdell (Exec) – U.S. Air Force Major General
 * Sally Brice-O'Hara (MPA '93) – 27th Vice Commandant of the United States Coast Guard
 * Dan Crenshaw (MPA '17) – medically retired United States Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander
 * Peter V. Neffenger (MPA '95) – 29th Vice Commandant of the United States Coast Guard and former Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration
 * Michael E. Fortney (Exec '11) – U.S. Air Force Brigadier General
 * Jeffrey Fowler (MPA '90) – United States Navy, Vice Admiral; Superintendent, United States Naval Academy
 * John C. Harvey (MPA '88) – United States Navy, Admiral; Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command
 * Muhammad Haszaimi (Exec '16) – Royal Brunei Armed Forces Commander
 * Robert C. Hinson (Exec) – U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General
 * William E. Ingram Jr. (Exec '02) – U.S. Army Lieutenant General and Director of the Army National Guard
 * Richard C. Johnston (Exec) – U.S. Air Force Brigadier General
 * Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr. (MPA '80) – United States Army, Lt. Col.; author of The Army and Vietnam
 * Rick Linnehan (MPA '09) – astronaut
 * Christopher Loria (MPA '04) – astronaut
 * Robert W. Parker (Exec '91) – U.S. Air Force Major General
 * Timothy S. Sullivan (Exec) – U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral
 * Guy C. Swan III (MPA '86) – U.S. Army Major General, Commanding General of the Military District of Washington
 * Jack Weinstein (Exec '06) – U.S. Air Force Major General

Non-profit organizations

 * Ramaswami Balasubramaniam (MPA'10) – Founder and president, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement
 * Lester R. Brown (MPA '62) – founder and President of the Earth Policy Institute
 * Rick Doblin (PhD '01) – Founder and executive director, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
 * Robert Kagan (MPP '91) – co-founder, Project for a New American Century
 * Nancy LeaMond (MPP '74) – Executive vice president, AARP
 * Giovanna Negretti (MPA '05) – co-founder and executive director of ¿Oiste?
 * Ayisha Osori – former CEO, Nigerian Women's Trust Fund
 * Michelle Rhee (MPP '97) – founder of The New Teacher Project; Chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public school system
 * Bryan Stevenson (MPP '85) – founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and author of Just Mercy

Science

 * Susan C. Gardner, Environment scientist

Spies

 * Donald Heathfield (real name: Andrey Bezrukov) (MPA '00) – KGB and SVR operative until his disclosure in the United States in 2010