Outreach and Belonging Associate Maleni Palacios MPP 2027 spoke with Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy Christopher Robichaud about his career trajectory, reflections on life decisions, and journey to Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Robichaud's path led him from small town in Ohio to teaching case-based philosophy at HKS. Now, he focuses on creating simulations that give students and professionals opportunities to explore ethical decision making in the context of practicing leadership skills and engaging in negotiations.
Read his answers in the Q&A below.
When you think back to your upbringing in a small town in Ohio, did you ever imagine teaching ethics to future policymakers at the Harvard Kennedy School?
No, I actually wanted to be a businessman like my father. He was the president of an industrial company in downtown Cleveland and traveled the world in his role. It was fascinating, but back then, I had much smaller ambitions. I started studying business at John Carroll University, but two years into a finance and economics double major, I switched over to philosophy and religious studies with a focus on Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and analytical philosophy.
Philosophy captivated me. It provided a rigorous way of answering the questions I'd been asking my whole life. What's the right way to live? Why is there something rather than nothing? I was exposed to hundreds of years of thinkers across cultures and religious traditions who offered very sophisticated answers, and I fell in love with the subject. After college, I had the chance to delve into Indo-Tibetan Buddhism at the University of Chicago, but I chose not to, and decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting and screenwriting. Some time went by, and I decided to give philosophy another shot. I attended Texas A&M for a master's in philosophy and then went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a PhD in philosophy.
When did the professor role map out for you?
I always loved teaching, so the idea of being an educator was attractive to me. And once I made the commitment to pursue a PhD, I realized that I could actually become a university professor.
For me, the biggest change in my life came after I became teaching fellow at HKS—which I completed during my studies at MIT. An opportunity to teach these insights to people who would possess real political power presented itself right in front of me at Harvard. It felt essential to translate some of the insights of philosophy to folks who would be seeking and wielding power.
Your work has transformed the ethics curriculum at HKS into something that's case-based and simulation-driven. Was there a moment when you realized that abstract theory wasn't enough and that students needed this practical ethical decision-making?
I noticed this almost right from the start. There's a burden on making ethics come alive for people who will be in spaces where it's relevant on a regular basis. I also realized I needed to find a way to teach that wasn't just from primary texts. That's what got me interested in writing a series of articles on superheroes and ethics.
Case-based ethics was not something that I originally landed upon. One of my colleagues here who since retired, Ken Winston, taught Mid-Career Master in Public Administration students using the case method, and I sat in on his class and fell in love with the method.
Before creating my own simulations, many students would read an ethics case, and because of human nature, they would imagine themselves in the most heroic of ways—they would never make the same mistakes that the protagonist made. Now, with the simulations, I can pull in a lot of gameplay and design simulations for students to experience having to make hard, moral decisions.
My most recent innovation is leaning into this notion that a lot of ethics can be taught through a serious and substantial engagement with the arts broadly, and that developing aesthetic and ethical sensibilities go together. Now, my sections have feature film and literature, comic books, and songs. In one of my classes, we're actually listening to Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer album as an opportunity to discuss Afrofuturism as a political strategy of hope. So, I really believe in leaning into the arts for ethics education.
“It felt essential to translate some of the insights of philosophy to folks who would be seeking and wielding power.”
When you look at someone preparing for public leadership, what signals tell you that they're ready, ethically, for responsibility?
Curiosity.
I'll tell you what tells me that they're not ready: a conviction that they have figured it all out. That, to me, is the kiss of death for public service. This isn't to suggest “don't have confidence,” because you need some spine and some confidence to survive, but the world is morally complicated. There are many trade-offs that inevitably come with any decision.
So, I would want someone who has enough conviction to know the things that they believe and the things that get them up in the morning, but not someone so overly confident in their way of seeing the world that they have no capacity to see it in different ways. To me, the public is plural, and if you enter into a pluralistic public with a sense of “I have nothing to learn. I've seen everything I need to see,” then you are not ready to serve the public.
After nearly two decades at HKS, are there common ethical blind spots that you see in high achieving students?
Many policy school students are often attracted to ideas of efficiency and maximizing utility, not ethical reflection. The former are important, but most people are not utility maximizers—even those who claim that they are. I've found that the biggest challenge is breaking through that way of thinking as the only way to think and encouraging folks to think alongside it differently. I like that the Master in Public Policy (MPP) core curriculum, at its best, teaches different habits of mind and thinking.
If you could speak to young Chris in Ohio, what would you tell him about the path ahead?
Don't try to over-plan. Be open to opportunities when they come. Both are important.
However, not trying to over-plan doesn't mean to be aimless. It just means that life is too interesting to fall into line with your plan at 18 or 22 years old. I see a lot of people walk past opportunities that are right in front of them. It's not about fear of missing out; it's about recognizing an opportunity when it comes your way.
What advice would you have for newly admitted students who may not yet see themselves as future leaders?
It's okay not to see yourself as a future leader right now. It's okay to say, “I don't yet exactly have in focus what this whole thing will be, but I'm open to the journey."
Do your best to surround yourself with faculty and friends that help you remember you belong at HKS. But, it's important to be comfortable with the fact that, as with most transformative journeys, you don't see the destination from the start. So, it's absolutely okay if the whole thing isn't in focus yet. Enjoy the ride.
