Paige Swem, who recently completed the Public Leadership Credential (PLC) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has sparked positive social change and inspired others to do the same throughout her career. At Voters Not Politicians, she mobilized diverse constituencies and raised millions to pass a statewide ballot initiative in Michigan, and as Ingham County’s policy analyst and team lead, Paige translated community needs into evidence-based programs, reducing fatal shootings. She most recently served as the community development manager for Michigan’s Community Service Commission, where she revolutionized grantmaking to distribute $64 million to underserved communities. Through the PLC pathway, she is now pursuing her Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration at HKS.
Paige’s vision of social activism centers on empowering communities to confront systemic injustice through collective action, and she views her work and purpose through a global lens, emphasizing that “effective solutions must be culturally responsive and locally driven.” She enrolled in the PLC seeking out tools to help her advance those solutions. “I wanted to learn how to develop tactics for policy design and delivery, and as a supervisor, I was interested in the ethics and leadership sections of the PLC to improve my personal practice of leadership,” she said.
The new practices and skills she learned at the PLC had an immediate positive impact in her role and organization. “When I made recommendations in County and State Government to use these approaches, they were welcomed, partially because these were grounded in evidence and taught by Harvard,” she said. “I was able to immediately put to use the tools Harvard provided to design county policy. Without these new frameworks, I would not have been able to make as meaningful change. The strategic triangle and the Isiwaka diagram were the two most impactful tools for policy design in my context.”
With a work schedule as busy as Paige’s, pursuing professional development and continued education can be a challenge. The format of the PLC accounts specifically for this, though. “The structure of weekly group work, assignments, and instruction provides just enough structure to allow students to fit the program within their lives, but hold them accountable to making progress,” she said.
Paige is now embarking on her Mid-Career Master’s at HKS, a decision heavily influenced by her experience in the PLC. “After such a positive experience online, I knew going to Harvard on campus would catapult my career to the next level,” she said. “I am developing principled leadership across diverse perspectives, especially when those perspectives might initially seem incompatible. This was very common in my weekly interaction with my small group during the PLC. I am even learning with two of my PLC classmates.”
Now that Paige has completed the PLC and continues her education at Harvard, she is also actively planning next steps for her career and the change she can create. “My career progress has revealed a crucial insight: while grassroots work builds understanding and middle management tests implementation, meaningful systemic change requires executive-level leadership,” she said. “I am at HKS to develop the strategic vision and executive-level capabilities to move beyond mid-management roles and maximize my impact. My experiences have taught me how to implement change; now Harvard is allowing me to architect this at the highest levels of public service.”