Paola Moreno-Roman, an alum of the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Public Leadership Credential (PLC), is a Peruvian scientist and educator working at the intersection of science access, leadership, and social impact and the founder of Yachaq Warmi, which supports young women in STEM across Peru, particularly from Indigenous and underserved backgrounds. She also serves as a Strategic Partnerships Consultant at Foldscope Instruments, Inc., helping to expand access to low-cost scientific tools. She earned a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from Stanford University and now focuses on building paths for more students to access high-quality learning and tools, and to keep cultivating curiosity and wonder.
Paola recognized that, with most of her formal training being in science, she was lacking education in both leadership and policy, crucial areas of focus as her work shifted towards social impact. This need is what brought her to the PLC. “I could feel there were concepts and language I was missing when speaking with policymakers and institutions, and I wanted a structured way to connect my lived experience to frameworks in evidence and systems change,” she said. “I was also interested in the Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration (MC/MPA) at Harvard Kennedy School and saw PLC as a way to explore that path more intentionally”.
Intentionality remained a consistent theme during her time in the PLC, particularly with the curriculum that made an impact on her approach to her work. “PLC changed how I think through new ideas before I say yes, and it expanded my knowledge in key areas,” Paola said. “I now start with a clearer theory of change, pay more attention to political and organizational alignment, and question whether the data I have is reliable enough to justify action.”
She also found the content of the program practical, tangible, and implementable in her role in real time. “I use PLC frameworks when I design science education initiatives in underserved communities, especially in Peru and across Latin America. Before jumping to solutions, I now spend more time naming the problem clearly, mapping who is affected, and understanding incentives for teachers, school leaders, and partners, and I am more honest about what our data can and cannot say before we make high-stakes choices,” she said. “This has shaped my work with Foldscope and Yachaq Warmi, where the aim is to create programs that feel legitimate to communities, make sense to institutions, and can last beyond a single project cycle.”
She continued, “The PLC gives you a set of tools to navigate complexity, not just a list of theories, and it trains you to ask whether an idea is not only technically good, but also politically possible, organizationally realistic, and morally defensible.”
Paola found great benefit in the PLC being offered online, allowing her the flexibility to continue her heavy workload while not compromising the quality of the program content or the relationships she built with her cohort. “Because the program was virtual, I could keep working and traveling while doing very practical exercises, with teaching assistants who were consistently supportive when the material was harder,” she said. “It feels very active through structured exercises and small-group work, and you learn alongside people who are doing serious work in their own countries and sectors. Beyond the academic content, it is also a rare chance to build relationships with mid-career professionals from all over the world, which is both inspiring and grounding.”
With the PLC successfully completed, Paola is now looking towards the future, both in her work pursuing policy that makes science education accessible, as well as her own educational journey. “In the long term, I hope to help shape science and education policy so that children, especially in rural and historically excluded communities, can experience science as something that belongs to them,” she said. “The next challenge is building initiatives that are both creative and durable, that can survive political cycles and still stay close to the people they are meant to serve. As I continue my work in DC and discern the MC/MPA path, and as I move between the United States and Peru, I want to apply what I learned in PLC about scale, legitimacy, and local realities to expand opportunity while strengthening trust in science and public institutions.”