By Jessica Bolin MPP 2025, Brian Camp MBA/MPP 2027, and Cameron Davis MPA 2026
Launched in 2018, Transition Term is a nonpartisan program that matches newly elected state, county, and local leaders with teams of HKS students who join them full-time for two weeks during the Kennedy School’s January Term. As the time for transitions is once again upon us, we’re sharing a lookback on last year’s Transition Term experience with one of our teams from North Carolina. Jessica Bolin MPP 2025, Brian Camp MBA/MPP 2027, and Cameron Davis MPA 2026 were matched with North Carolina Governor Josh Stein in January 2025. They shared highlights from their experience below.
Arriving at the gray government office in downtown Raleigh on Thursday, January 2, we were starting at zero. Former state Attorney General Josh Stein had been elected in a convincing victory in the November general election and had quickly spun up a transition team taking input from business, civic, and political leaders from across North Carolina. As our student team settled in, Governor Stein’s new staff were granted their @nc.gov emails while milling about between temporary desks and getting used to the new space. Everyone made rounds of introductions and connected with their new colleagues, eager to deliver together on the governor’s campaign promise of a safer, stronger North Carolina.
The three of us were in Raleigh for Transition Term – or T-Term, as it’s affectionately called. This year, we were one of the 18 teams that supported a total of 11 cities, two counties, and five states nationwide.
Hitting the ground running
Even before our work with the Governor’s Office, North Carolina was near and dear to all of us. Jessica was born and raised in Greenville, went to UNC for undergrad, and spent her early career before HKS running campaigns and working in the legislature. Brian is a proud Charlotte native, where he grew up and spent eight years as a consultant in Ernst & Young’s risk practice. And Cameron, the only out-of-state teammate, is from neighboring Virginia and has many fond memories in the Tar Heel State.
After our first day of T-Term, the experience quickly ramped up. Governor Stein’s campaign and administrative north star to build a safer, stronger North Carolina energized his team as they worked to build the Governor’s Office from the ground up to achieve that mission. We had met his Chief of Staff Seth Dearmin back in Cambridge during the Taubman Center’s convening for chiefs of staff of newly elected governors, and we had immediately bonded over UNC basketball and an excitement to get to work. Before the first day, we agreed with Seth on splitting our team to individually support his three deputy chiefs of staff, and by January 3, it was off to the races.
Lending expertise across the governor’s office
With the most experience working on policy issues facing North Carolinians, Jessica joined Senior Advisor Jasmine McGhee’s team. Jasmine previously led the Consumer Protection Division at the NC Department of Justice and immediately met with her new team to develop strategies and key goals for the governor’s campaign promises. Jessica assisted the team by creating policy memos with key metrics to gauge success, drafted language on an executive order related to reproductive rights and helped write speeches and gubernatorial public statements.
Having significant expertise in process analysis and risk management, plus a passion for listening to the challenges of North Carolinians, Brian joined External Advisor Laura Brewer’s team focusing on communications and constituent engagement. He reviewed resumes to find talent to lead the office’s digital communications and social media operation and he analyzed the constituent services function and recommended enhancements from a process, data, and staffing perspective.
Coming from a consulting and government operations background, Cameron teamed up with state Chief Operating Officer (COO) Christie McNeill. The COO role was new to North Carolina, so the team was tasked with both defining and fulfilling its mandate in those first several weeks. From defining the approach for cabinet meetings and secretary updates to the governor, to synthesizing agency strategic plans, to helping determine the roles and responsibilities of the Governor’s Office and new task forces, Cameron was busy setting up the new governor’s delivery and research teams for success in the next four years.
Navigating new challenges
We learned firsthand that governing involves both strategy and proactive planning as well as reacting and responding to the unexpected. No matter how much an incoming administration may prepare to govern, the new governor and the supporting team will always have unexpected events that the new administration must react and respond to. During our time in the Governor’s Office, a major winter storm required the governor to act quickly and show the people of North Carolina that his administration had a plan to keep people safe. This idea of having to take information inputs and move quickly to actions is something that we take back to the classroom. As we learn analytical techniques and theory, we also push to understand how our public policy tools can be used in a dynamic and frenetic landscape such as a state governor’s office.
Hard work and policy challenges aside, we also had fun. We attended a Duke-UNC women’s basketball game (Tar Heel overtime win!) and a hockey game (Canes win!). We took day trips to four major universities in the vaunted Research Triangle and watched the cabinet be sworn in at the North Carolina state capitol. We enjoyed Raleigh’s incredible baked goods scene at Union Special, Yellow Dog, and Boulted Bread, and searched for unique crafts at the Raleigh Market. We experienced Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirrors at the North Carolina Museum of Art and saw local artisans at Artspace. We had dinner with the governor’s speechwriter, HKS alum Bethany Kirkpatrick Wood MPP 2023, and spent late nights out on Glenwood South.
Transition Term was a real highlight of our time at HKS, and the opportunity to support a safer, stronger North Carolina was special for each of us. We’re grateful to everyone who welcomed us to the Tar Heel State, especially Governor Stein, who graduated from Harvard Kennedy School himself —MPP 1995!— and whose public service gives a model for all of us currently at HKS. When we left the Governor’s Office after our deployment, it was incredible to see how the team and structures had been built before our very eyes, going from 0 to 100 in just a matter of days — and we feel lucky that we got to contribute in some small way.
