Cambridge, MA – Today, Harvard Impact Labs announced the inaugural participants for two programs that put Harvard research and expertise to work for society: the Impact Lab Development Fellowship and Public Service Leaves. Ten faculty from six Harvard schools were selected through a competitive application process. The participating professors span fields from law, education, and political science to public health, medicine, and bioengineering.
- Public Service Leaves: Harvard Impact Labs provides sabbatical support for Harvard faculty to spend a semester working in government or nonprofit organizations. The initial participants will be Dr. Ingrid Bassett, who will work at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to design and evaluate childhood vaccination outreach and communication strategies, and Alisha C. Holland, who will be working on the Argentinian President’s Council of Advisors to develop new channels for citizen participation in green energy projects, streamline bureaucracy, and increase citizen trust in government.
- Impact Lab Development Fellowship: The nine-month fellowship provides faculty with training, coaching, and $25,000 in seed funding to develop meaningful scientific collaborations with public and private leaders aimed at producing evidence-based, scalable solutions to social problems. The initial cohort of eight fellows, listed below, will participate in monthly workshops led by Harvard Impact Labs Faculty Co-Directors Danielle Allen and Jeffrey Liebman, covering topics such as refining problem definitions, building partnerships, scaling, fundraising, and communications.
Launched in spring 2025, Harvard Impact Labs is a University-wide initiative created to strengthen the capacity of Harvard faculty to design and scientifically test solutions to some of society’s biggest challenges. The initiative provides resources, training, and opportunities for faculty to work alongside leaders in government, nonprofits, and the private sector.
“The selected faculty are eager to learn from leaders outside of academia and work alongside them to develop solutions that improve lives and strengthen communities,” said Amanda Pallais, the Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics and co-faculty director of Harvard Impact Labs. “Harvard Impact Labs is designed to provide faculty with the tools, connections, and support to build partnerships that turn research into meaningful change.”
“Public Service Leaves open the door for faculty to step directly into government and nonprofit organizations,” said James S. Kim, Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and co-faculty director of Harvard Impact Labs. “Immersion in these environments provides an opportunity for faculty to apply their skills and research insights to pressing problems while deepening their understanding of the issues, building new relationships, and sparking fresh research questions.”
“These Harvard faculty will work with public, nonprofit, and private sector leaders in the U.S. and abroad to improve health, education, economic mobility and well-being,” said Pauline Abernathy, Executive Director at Harvard Impact Labs. “Our aim is to bring Harvard’s research engine to bear on real-world challenges in ways that are responsive, collaborative, and rooted in community needs.”
The initial cohort of Impact Lab Development Fellowship participants –– and their focus areas –– includes:
- Andrew Manuel Crespo, Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law, Harvard Law School: The United States incarcerates more people than any other country. While incarcerated, many people face violence and neglect, including serious violence and inadequate healthcare. Since the Supreme Court’s 1978 decision denying First Amendment access to prisons, prisons have been shielded from public and journalistic scrutiny. Professor Crespo will work with a variety of stakeholders to develop state-level strategies to bolster the rights and capacities of journalists, inside and outside of prisons, to report on prison practices and conditions and thus to increase public awareness and prison system accountability.
- Christine Desan, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law, Harvard Law School: Access to capital shapes opportunity, but small businesses and entrepreneurs have long faced barriers accessing financing from commercial banks. Notably, business owners of color, women entrepreneurs, and small-scale farmers face among the greatest challenges. Local governments may also struggle to access long-term, affordable financing due to declining credit ratings, restrictive state laws, and bond market volatility. Professor Desan will work with community stakeholders, local financial institutions, and government leaders to explore sustainable state-based financing strategies aimed at closing these credit gaps outside the commercial banking system.
- Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education: Globally, more than 43 million people live as refugees, half of whom are children. They now typically live in exile between 10 and 25 years, meaning millions of children spend their entire school-aged years in exile. Yet too often, schools in the U.S. and abroad do not adequately support refugee children nor prepare them for success in life and society. Professor Dryden-Peterson will collaborate with domestic and international educators, school districts, and local governments. Together, they will explore scalable ways to strengthen teacher pedagogies that improve refugee students’ learning, sense of belonging, and connection to future opportunities.
- Wafaie Fawzi, Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Sciences and Professor of Nutrition, Epidemiology, and Global Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: More than 250 million adolescents live in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region increasingly affected by severe droughts and erratic rainfall driven by climate change. As a result, youth in this area face food insecurity and malnutrition which contribute to overlapping challenges such as high rates of school dropout, early marriage, teen pregnancy, and mental health challenges. Professor Fawzi will work in partnership with communities, government officials, and researchers in Ethiopia to identify scalable strategies for providing nutritious school meals that utilize local climate-smart agriculture.
- Rita Hamad, Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: Immigrants to the United States are more likely to live in poverty than native-born Americans, yet they are typically ineligible for federal safety net programs. Even when immigrants are eligible for assistance, they are less likely to claim it. Professor Hamad will collaborate with policy makers and organizations working with immigrants to determine what research would help inform decisions on immigrant eligibility for safety net assistance.
- Sandeep Kumar, Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School: Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke, a leading cause of death and long-term disability. Highly effective treatments are now available, but many people do not receive them in time to benefit. Dr. Kumar will collaborate with the Massachusetts Office of Emergency Medical Services, healthcare providers, payers, policy makers and others to diagnose structural causes of the delay and identify potential scalable solutions.
- David Pedulla, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Kennedy School of Government: How organizations hire affects organizational performance and has broad implications for society. Hiring can create pathways for upward mobility or sustain or exacerbate historic inequalities in wealth, income, and opportunity. Professor Pedulla will explore ways to help employers optimize their hiring processes to meet their organizational goals while also ensuring that their hiring processes are fair.
- Patrick Slade, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: Baseline health data is often unavailable or inadequately measured in developing countries. The gaps in public health data and infrastructure limit both the prevention and treatment of chronic conditions and disease. Professor Slade will collaborate with government agencies and nonprofit organizations in Peru to identify how low-cost wearable technology and open-source algorithms could help improve health and healthcare while safeguarding private data.
Looking ahead, in early 2026, Harvard Impact Labs will announce the recipients of its third component, Impact Lab Funding, providing up to $500,000 over two years for faculty to collaborate with non-academic leaders to design, test, and scale solutions to urgent social problems.
More information on the initiative can be found on the Harvard Impact Labs website.