2008 Rappaport Institute Public Policy Fellows

Our distinguished selection committee chose 12 Public Policy Fellows from approximately 90 candidates. The outpouring of interest in these programs confirms the great interest in state and local governance issues. Rappaport Public Policy Fellows spend 10 weeks working in state and local government offices in the Greater Boston area. The Fellows come from graduate and professional programs at local universities such as Harvard, Suffolk, MIT, Tufts, Northeastern and Boston University. To learn more about the program, visit our Eligibility page. If you work at a state or local government office interested in hosting an intern or fellow for next summer, please contact Polly O'Brien at (617) 495-5091 or paulina_obrien@ksg.harvard.edu.

Ashley Carlson, Harvard School of Public Health
Undergraduate School: Duke University
Areas of interest: Public Health and Education
Placement: Office of Rep. Alice Wolf
Project description: Ashley Carlson will be working in the Office of Massachusetts Representative Alice Wolf (D-Cambridge), a twelve year veteran in the Massachusetts House and Kennedy School graduate. Ashley will focus on health and education policy issues, as Rep. Wolf is on both the Joint Committee on Education and the Joint Committee on Public Health.

Amy Caswell Moran, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate School: Harvard College
Areas of interest: Immigration
Placement: Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA)
Project description: Amy Caswell Moran will be working at the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA.) The BRA Research Division will undertake a research study on immigrant organizations in Boston. The project will examine the role immigrant organizations play in incorporating newcomers to the United States. The goal of the project is to see the role these organizations play in the economic, social, and political incorporation of immigrants in Boston. In the end, the study intends to learn about the character of these organizations, as well as their possible roles and expectations in potential city programs for immigrant communities.

Holly Elwell, Tufts University
Undergraduate School: University of Vermont
Areas of interest: Environment
Placement: Office of Ecosystem Protection, EPA New England, Region 1
Project description: Holly Elwell will be working with Mel Cote, Manager of the Oceans and Coastal Protection Unit, Office of Ecosystem Protection at EPA. For the first month, she will be involved in planning EPA’s first Climate Change Workshop. After that, she will be involved in a pilot project with the Mass Bays Estuaries Program. This program has been selected for a federal EPA grant for the Climate Ready Estuaries program. She will be working to apply this program to the Mass Bays Estuaries Program, focusing on incorporating climate change impacts into the management plan of coastal areas.

Ryan Fattman, Tufts University
Undergraduate School: Suffolk Univesity
Areas of interest: Housing
Placement: MassHousing
Project description: At MassHousing, under the supervision of Kevin Mello, Ryan Fattman will be researching several aspects of the recent foreclosure/ sub-prime lending debacle. First, he will briefly research MassHousing’s Home Saver program and pieces of legislation that address the foreclosure crisis, analyzing their successes and failures. Second, he will inspect alternative policy approach of promoting new and first time home ownership, as opposed to housing retention-oriented policies. Finally, he will analyze the housing market in Massachusetts, aggregating housing statistics, ranging from levels of homeownership, delinquency rates, foreclosures rates, and housing valuations. This data will be used to determine if policies promoting first time home ownership of foreclosed properties are wise to consider for mitigation of the housing crisis. 

Kristen Joyce, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate School: University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Areas of interest: Economic Development and Social Services
Placement: Mayor's Office, City of Boston
Project description: The City of Boston coordinates a nationally-recognized and frequently replicated EITC campaign.  Leveraging numerous partners – from local community development corporations to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston – and over 200 volunteers, this campaign has helped put over $20 million back into the pockets of Boston’s residents annually in recent years through tax refunds and credits.  Over the last several years, the campaign has added additional financial services at various sites including opportunities to receive credit counseling, open a bank account, buy savings bonds and enroll in health care plans and food stamp programs.

These additional programs take advantage of the tax preparation moment: a unique, annual opportunity where individuals are required to stock of their financial health.   EITC campaigns across the nation are beginning to take advantage of this moment to wrap a complete "financial check-up" and added financial programs around the typical free tax preparation service.  The City of Boston, with several of our partners, is interested in exploring new models to provide these wrap-around services in a more formal way. 

With the goal of creating the operation plan for the new wrap around service model at the Codman Square EITC site and/or the Dudley Square site, the summer work will be divided into four parts, including an assessment of services, an operational plan, a volunteer recruitment and training plan and an assessment plan.

Nicholas Maryns, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate School: Saint Olaf College
Areas of interest: Performance Management
Placement: Mayor’s Office, City of Boston
Project description: Nicholas Maryns will be working the Office of Mayor Thomas M. Menino on the transformation of the Mayor’s 24 Hour Hotline. Improvements in technology have made it feasible to collect and track data from the Hotline, turning it into a major source of information that can drive significant improvements in service delivery. Nick will assist in developing a policy on how data generated from the new system will be reported, both to city departments and to the public so that it is timely, clear, and actionable. Further, he will work to establish and implement a system that will verify that service requests are complete, and create a survey to gauge the satisfaction of constituents who call the Hotline.

Lauren Nicoll, Northeastern University
Undergraduate School: Drew University
Areas of Interest: Economic Development
Placement: Mayor's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Developement, Somerville
Project Description: Massachusetts hosts a large cluster of creative industries, including artists, musicians, film making, industrial and graphic design, architecture, and video gaming, etc., which it sees as among the most important keys to economic development in the Commonwealth. According to their research, there are over 14,000 arts-related businesses employing close to 80,000 people in Massachusetts.  The Commonwealth is currently preparing a series of industry-specific policies, strategies and investments that are intended to continue the State’s comparative advantage in order to create jobs and economic wealth.

The Commonwealth’s research indicates that there is a large cluster of creative industries in Somerville, about which little is known.  The goal of my summer project will be to (1) define the creative sector for the purposes of this report, (2) identify the local firms constituting the creative economy in Somerville, (3) document their activities through existing data and quantitative research, (4) investigate why these businesses are located in Somerville, (5) research best practices and compare approaches to retaining and attracting the creative industry cluster by cities similar to Somerville, and (6) analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the creative industry in Somerville as well as develop recommendations including policies and programs that will support the growth of this cluster.  In other words; who is there, what are they doing, where are they doing it, why are they in Somerville, and what can the OSPCD do to help?

The final product will be a report presented to the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, with the possibility of a case study of the creative industry in Somerville, including recommendations, that will published in a report being prepared by Massachusetts Office of Business Development the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Mt. Auburn Associates.

Justin Pasquariello, Harvard Kennedy School of Government/Harvard Business School
Undergraduate School: Harvard College
Areas of interest: Social Services
Placement: Department of Social Services
Project Description: This summer, Justin will be interning under the direct supervision of David Murphy, Director of Legislative Affairs at the Department of Social Services.  He will be working closely with him and other DSS leadership staff as they complete legislative budget work and work on an omnibus child abuse and neglect bill.  He will work on a 90 day implementation plan for that child abuse and neglect bill.  He also will do other work for Mary Gambon, Assistant Commissioner for Foster Care and Adoption.  His final product will be the 90 day implementation plan.

Tara Pavao, Suffolk University
Undergraduate School: Bridgewater State University
Areas of interest: Social Services
Placement: Department of Social Services
Project Description: Transitioning foster youth to multiple foster placements may be inevitable, however, it may be possible to maintain their school setting constant for the remaining current school year.  By doing so, foster youth can maintain longer relationships with positive role models, have a healthy sense of closure as their school year comes to an end, and look forward to begin a new school year as all youth do in September.  In facilitating my policy research, Tara Pavao will focus on the Boston region to obtain information on how many adolescents in care of the Commonwealth were able to remain in their school setting for the remainder of the school year and calculate how many transferred schools in the middle of their school year.  She will examine factors that affect the rate of high school completion and identify alternate methods to increase their positive youth development.  Her recommendations will be based on a cost-benefit analysis to suggest whether or not it is possible to have foster youth remain in their current school setting for the remaining school year.  The McKinney-Vento Act of 1987 supports this concept and recognizes the importance of keeping children in their school of origin to develop meaningful ties.  The Act was created with the goal of ensuring the enrollment, attendance, and success of homeless children and youth in school.

Jillian Standish, Boston University School of Management
Undergraduate School: Bucknell University
Areas of interest: Housing
Placement: Masssachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development
Project description: One of the Department of Housing and Community Development’s primary foci this year is the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP), which offers both tenant- and project-based rental subsidies to individuals and families.  Since the program is both created and administered by the state, it is a tremendous resource for housing low-income families in the Commonwealth.  The program has not been used to its full potential, and DHCD is planning on redesigning it. Jillian Standish will spend the summer formulating a recommendation on this redesign by doing field interviews and surveys with all of the program's stakeholders (including regional housing agencies, local housing authorities, housing advocates and related state agencies) to find out how they would envision a re-designed MRVP program.  Using this as a basis, she will compile their responses and use this analysis, along with experience from working with and interviewing DHCD staff, to make recommendations about re-designing the program and re-writing the regulations governing the program. 

Joshua Wakeham, Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Undergraduate School: Williams College
Areas of interest: Social Services, Youth Issues
Placement: Department of Youth Services
Project Description: For the Rappaport Summer Doctoral Fellowship, I will be working for the Department of Youth Services to examine its evaluation and placement process. After a juvenile has been placed in the custody of DYS by the juvenile courts, there is a 30-45 day evaluation period during which information is gathered about the child and his or her case. After this time period, DYS staff gather together at what is termed a "staffing". At this staffing meeting, the child’s placement, sentencing, and general treatment plan are discussed by parents/guardians, social workers, psychologists, therapists, counselors, and now, even defense attorneys. I will look to examine this process at the various DYS offices throughout the State to gain a better understanding of how these collective decisions about these children are made and to identify any potential variation. Moreover, I will be paying special attention to the influence, or lack thereof, of the recent introduction of defense attorneys to these meeting. It is my hope that this research will have both a qualitative and quantitative element to it. I plan on observing this process, interviewing staff, and analyzing records and available data.

Victoria Wolff, MIT
Undergraduate School: Williams College
Areas of interest: Economic Development and transportation
Placement: Boston Redevelopment Authority
Project Description: This summer, Victoria Wolff will join the Planning Division of the Boston Redevelopment Authority.  She will work on a variety of Dudley Square and Greater Roxbury neighborhood initiatives including review of the methods and policies that have successfully engaged the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee (RSMPOC) in community development.  She will also focus on preparing for development of the vacant city-owned parcels at the corner of Melnea Cass and Washington Street.  As a representative of the BRA, she will regularly communicate with the RSMPOC and other involved parties to jointly create design, transportation, use, and sustainability guidelines for these parcels that will inform the final RFPs.

Kathleen Ziegenfuss, MIT
Undergraduate School: Boston University
Areas of interest: Transportation
Placement: Mayor's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development
Project Description: This summer Kathleen Ziegenfuss will be working with the City of Somerville to develop an economic development and land use plan for the area surrounding the future Union Square Station and surrounding areas. This area will be greatly impacted by the extension of the Green Line from Lechmere Station, and the City is preparing how to best anticipate and leverage this new transit service. She will analyze the existing conditions and help the City identify opportunities to encourage new development through various programs and economic tools.