Co-Curricular Program

Brave Communication: Giving Voice to Your Values 

Facilitators: Timothy McCarthy

Friday, April 4, 2025
8:45 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Applications close March 26.

The rising generation of public leaders must be able to communicate with courage and integrity in an increasingly diverse, divided, and disrupted world. This workshop will help strengthen your capacity to be a brave leader and communicator in whatever setting or sector you choose. This workshop is open only to students who have not taken Dr. McCarthy’s course "REAL TALK: The Art & Practice of B.R.A.V.E. Communication" at HGSE. 

Crisis Communications for Public Leaders: Lessons from the Field 

Facilitator: Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH

Wednesday, February 12, 2025
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Applications close January 29.

A co-curricular session with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, 19th director of the US Centers for Disease Control; 2024 Hauser Leader, CPL; Senior Fellow, Belfer Center and WAPPP. 

Apply today for this interactive session designed to stimulate conversation and reflection on the leadership skills needed to communicate effectively during a crisis. Dr. Rochelle Walensky will share a series of mini case studies in crisis communication drawn from her experience as the director of the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic. The session will cover:

• The importance of knowing your audience

• Strategies for addressing misinformation and disinformation

• Making tough calls while navigating political realities with incomplete data 

• Techniques for communicating complex issues in a clear and accessible manner

• Building and maintaining trust with your audience

Students will have the opportunity to engage in discussion and Q&A, enabling them to explore specific concerns and reflect on their own communication strategies as emerging public leaders. 

 

 Dr. Rochelle Walensky served as the 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021-2023), Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (2012-2021), and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital (2017-2021). Dr. Walensky is an infectious disease clinician whose research career is guided by a belief that the clinical and economic outcomes of medical decisions can be improved through the explicit articulation of choices, the systematic assembly of evidence, and the careful assessment of comparative costs and benefits. She has focused these beliefs on mathematical model-based research toward the promotion of global access to HIV prevention, screening, and care. Her ground-breaking work and over 300 research publications have motivated changes to US HIV testing and immigration policy; promoted expanded funding for HIV-related research, treatment, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPfAR); and led to policy revisions toward aggressive HIV screening – especially for the underserved – and earlier treatment in resource-limited international settings. In light of these contributions, Dr. Walensky has been an active member of policy discussions at the WHO, UNAIDS, the DHHS HIV Guidelines Committee, and the NIH Office of AIDS Research.

Dr. Walensky served on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts until beginning her tenure at the CDC on January 20th, 2021.  While at the CDC, Dr. Walensky led the nation—and the world—through unprecedented times, navigating the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic and further facing the largest density of diverse infectious threats likely ever seen in this country. During her tenure, she participated in nearly 100 press conferences and countless media appearances, and provided testimony at 17 Congressional hearings.

Dr. Walensky is a member of the American Academy of Physicians, National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees at the Doris Duke Foundation and The Carter Center.

Dr. Walensky received her BA (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1991) from Washington University in St. Louis; her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (1995) and her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health (Clinical Effectiveness, 2001).  She completed her Internal Medicine residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital (1995-1998) and her Infectious Disease fellowship at the Massachusetts General/Brigham and Women’s Hospital combined program (1998-2001).  She is married to Loren Walensky, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist and pediatric oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital. The Doctors Walensky have three sons, ages 20, 22, and 24.

Finding your Authentic Voice 

Facilitator: Carla Canales Dirlikov

Applications close February 12.

Finding Your Authentic Voice is designed to help participants feel empowered to use the full potential of their voice as leaders for social change. Through activities that explore culture and personal identity as well as vocal exercises, we will explore ways to best utilize the power of our voice to communicate authentically and effectively.

Carla Canales has created and led programs concerning cultural diplomacy and cultural entrepreneurship at leading universities worldwide and has served as an Arts Envoy for the United States Department of State since 2005.  In addition, she has won acclaim on leading stages around the world as an opera singer while also being recognized with multiple awards and honors for her work as an arts advocate and as an entrepreneur.  In 2023, Carla was appointed by the White House to serve in a newly created role at the National Endowment for the Arts, as Senior Advisor and Envoy for Cultural Exchange. Prior to joining the Biden Administration, Carla oversaw cultural diplomacy initiatives at both Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Since 2021 she has been a Social Innovation Initiative Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School and as was also 2021 Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard, the youngest fellow in the history of the program to date. During the Obama Administration, Carla served as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities Turnaround Arts Program.  She is the founder of The Canales Project, a non-profit arts and advocacy organization focusing on using the arts to address issues of identity and culture.  As a classical singer, Carla has been in demand for her portrayal of Bizet’s Carmen, a role she has performed over eighty times in twelve countries.  In other leading roles and as a concert singer she has performed on five continents including, in the U.S., performances at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Carla has authored two recent book chapters on Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy, as well as several academic publications.  She is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English and is currently working on achieving proficiency in Mandarin.

Leadership Development Cohort Part II

This offering is only open to those students who participated in the fall 2024 Leadership Development Cohort Part I. 

Facilitator: Rand Wentworth

Applications close January 29.

A continuation of the fall 2024 workshop, in this series you will learn practical leadership skills that you can put to work immediately. Participants will develop these skills through experiential learning: simulations, role plays, case studies, personal reflections, and mentoring.  The instructor received the 2021 Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching and brings 30 years of on-the-ground leadership experience.

The workshops include:

• Self-awareness and Emotional Intelligence
• Radical Listening
• Creating Teams
• Building Power
• Persuasive Communication
• Perseverance and Managing Adversity

This offering is only open to those students who participated in the fall 2024 Leadership Development Cohort Part I. 

Rand Wentworth teaches environmental politics, leadership and negotiation at the Kennedy School and received the Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021. Wentworth is president emeritus of the Land Trust Alliance, a DC based national conservation organization that leads over 1000 land trusts with 8,000 staff, 16,000 board members and 4.6 million members. He is widely recognized for expanding the pace and quality of land conservation in America. Wentworth has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions and built a bi-partisan coalition that convinced Congress to pass environmental legislation. He was the founding director of the Trust for Public Land in Atlanta where he tripled the size of the national park honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and protected a 70-mile national park along the Chattahoochee River. Prior to his career in conservation, Rand was president of a commercial real estate development company. He is graduate of Yale University and holds an MBA in finance from Cornell University. 

Leading with a Gender Lens in International Development 

Facilitators: Mara Bolis

Applications close February 5.

Inequality undermines development, yet too often policies and programs fail to account for differences in individual human preferences, needs, opportunities and risks. As a result, well-intended initiatives may increase – rather than reduce - vulnerability. While there are many drivers of inequality, marginalization based on gender is a persistent cause.

This co-curricular is designed to help students augment their leadership skills by enabling them to think with a gender lens.  In this seminar, students will be exposed to concepts, tools and approaches to enable them to bring these considerations into their work no matter their primary area of focus.  The material will include case studies for illustrative purposes and a guest lecture to provide an unfiltered perspective of the challenges and benefits of integrating gender considerations into one's work. This course will focus on the area of international development policy and practice, though the learnings will be applicable to other policy realms.

Every development problem has a gendered dimension that is accentuated based on race, ethnicity, caste, religion, disability and other factors. People of all genders pursuing careers in international development will be more effective practitioners and leaders if they understand how to spot and address gender inequality in their work.

For everyone interested in international development who is eager to understand how to spot and address gender inequality in their work, please join Mara’s office hours for thoughts about how to make your work more inclusive.  

Mara Bolis is a second-year Havard Kennedy School fellow working with CPL this year focusing on leadership capabilities to drive gender equality. This follows her work on gender and international development with the Center for International Development in the 2022-2023 academic year. Mara is a seasoned leader with over 25 years’ experience advancing gender justice and women’s economic empowerment in the US and around the world. Mara has held senior positions in organizations such as gender-lens investing advisory Value for Women, advocacy organization Marshall Plan for Moms, and Oxfam America where she facilitated initiatives across Africa, Asia and Latin America . Mara’s particular area of expertise is bringing a gender lens to economic development given her prior work experience with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, US ExIm Bank and the Development Finance Corporation. She has been interviewed for her work by leading media institutions including Forbes, Bloomberg, National Public Radio and the Washington Post, invited to speak at Skoll World Forum, the OECD and several universities, and is the author of influential articles on impact investing, social impact and women's empowerment. Mara has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University, a Masters in Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown and a BA from Barnard College.

Negotiation Clinic 

Facilitator: Monica Giannone

Applications close March 26.

The Negotiation Clinic is an intensive clinic designed using best practices in negotiation skill development and a research-based coaching protocol. The Clinic is an opportunity for students to improve their negotiations performance through one-on-one feedback from a trained coach who will understand their personal goals, observe them in multiple exercises, and provide feedback and an opportunity for guided reflection.

Monica Giannone is the Director of the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. Giannone is an Instructor at Harvard Kennedy School where she teaches in Executive Education programs and co-teaches degree program courses on negotiation. Giannone is also an Adjunct Lecturer in the Management Division at Babson College and teaches negotiation in the MBA program.

The Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory’s work on negotiation, conflict management, alternative dispute resolution, and intersectional leadership seeks to expand the way the HKS community and the broader field studies leadership and negotiation. Giannone’s current areas of work focus on international climate negotiations, overcoming partisan divide in U.S. legislatures, negotiation in cities and local government, value-based conflict, situations of low-power, and gender and negotiation.

Giannone has worked with foundations, non-profits, government institutions, and companies in the public and private sectors to deliver customized trainings on interest-based negotiation focusing on two-party negotiation, multi-party negotiation, team based/internal-external negotiation, influence and persuasion, and situations of low-power and/or status differences. Clients include European, Burmese, Israeli, Palestinian and other international diplomats and political leaders, U.S. Congress, U.S. military, multinational foundations, and private sector companies in the manufacturing, consulting, and tech industries.

Giannone has a Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science and Religion from Wake Forest University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Redefining Leadership: Creative Collaborations in Social Policy and Economic Justice. Lessons from Boston. 

Facilitator: Ira Jackson

LGBTQ+ Victory Institute

Facilitators: Elliot Imse and Itay Balely