This year’s Harvard Kennedy School reunion was for classes with years ending in 1 and 6, spanning from 1976 to 2021. Alumni from 50 nations, totaling around 800, were welcomed by Dean Jeremy Weinstein, the first HKS dean who is also a graduate.
“Reunion is extraordinary because it reminds me of the research of this school,” Weinstein said, “the generations that have passed through these doors, people brought together in our community by a commitment to the public good, by a belief in what it is that we teach.”
Over the course of the reunion, which spanned May 15 through 17, faculty members gave talks on their research; alumni were presented awards, and old and new friends connected on campus.
Among the highlights were a discussion of pivotal concepts that shape the landscape of public policy and human rights with faculty members, Linda Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, David King, senior lecturer in public policy; and Kathryn Sikkink, Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy. International development experts spoke about globalization and the emerging international order, faculty who study democracy discussed polarization and public policy, and Professor Julia Minson explained the science and practice of constructive disagreement. Alumni-led panels also covered a range of topics, including technology, AI, and public policy.
The three-day convening was capped off with a closing keynote by Cornell William Brooks that wove together the School’s mission and today’s challenges. Brooks, the Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations, the professor of practice of public leadership and social justice, and the faculty director of the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at HKS, echoed the thread that ran through all discussions: we are living in challenging times.
“We are at the center of questions having to do with war and peace, hunger, public health, criminal justice ... at the center of development and national security ... at the center of the use of artificial intelligence in a democratic society.”
At this moment, Brooks suggested that the HKS community is more than capable of supporting the United States and its people in these times of chaos, struggle, and uncertainty.
First, he said, each graduate is called. “We are situationally, circumstantially, historically called to hear the cries of those who are experiencing indignity and the piercing cruelties of the moment.” HKS students, he believes, hear that call. “We are the only school at Harvard that posts signs with the moral and communal directive: Ask what you can do,” said Brooks.
He highlighted alumni who not only heard the call but acted. Bryan Stevenson MPP/JD 1985, a lawyer and social justice advocate, answered the call with proximity, getting intimate, standing by people’s side when they are in need, he said. Rachel Jacoby MPP 2023, a gun violence prevention activist, Brooks said, answered the call with action, from organizing rallies to leading a legislative campaign to pass an assault weapons ban in Illinois. Zahra Saifi MPP 2024 became the first Muslim elected president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.
“Zahra was my former student,” said Brooks. “She challenged us to teach the hard subjects, to talk about difficult topics. That inspires you to dig deeper.”
The second way the Kennedy School community to ready to act, he said, is that “we are in the right place,” he said. “There is a through line of public service from our genesis story to the present. It is the connective tissue that binds us,” said Brooks.
Public service, he said, defines an HKS alum. “We are at the center of questions having to do with war and peace, questions having to do with hunger, public health, criminal justice. We are at the center of development and national security,” Brooks said. “We are at the center of the use of artificial intelligence in a democratic society.”
This great history of public service, he said, has given graduates the opportunity to affect change. It is a history that Brooks says we should hold close, especially in these challenging times. “We need not flinch. We need not give up our strengths. Stand where we are.”
Brooks’ final argument was that alumni were not only in the right place but there at the right time. In this moment, he said, “technology threatens to advance and cause us to go into moral retreat.”
Brooks summed up his address by saying that this is the moment for HKS: “We can’t have less determination than the students we recruit. We must stand.”
All of the reunion speeches and ceremonies can be found on the HKS Reunion 2026 YouTube page.
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Photography by Martha Stewart.
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