By Valerie Davis
Michelle Cruz MC/MPA 2025 did not know how her varying interests could intersect with public service until coming to Harvard Kennedy School.
—
Michelle Cruz MC/MPA 2025, a John F. Kennedy Fellow, has an eclectic résumé—she earned a master’s degree in business administration and doctorate in healthcare administration, toured the nation as a jazz musician, aided minority farmers, created a play on the experiences of veterans, and more.
Though she has pursued different educational and career paths, there is a common thread that ties her work together: listening to people—and asking how she can help—wherever she goes.
“All of these experiences were different, but I admired each of them in their own ways,” Cruz says. “I always liked meeting new people.”
She initially intended to study vocal performance in college (much to her immigrant parents’ dismay) but settled on marketing. Still, she found ways to sing.
“It was clear I affected people through song,” Cruz says. “I also couldn’t ignore my absolute love for it.”
She started a band, led an award-winning jazz quartet that performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, and toured with blues bands. As she traveled, she met people from across social classes, communities, and regions.
“I didn’t expect my favorite part of performing to be connecting with people,” she says. “I would walk around, talk to locals, and take the temperature of what was happening in their communities. I was curious what was going on in different cities in the United States—whether it was good or bad.”
“I didn’t expect my favorite part of performing to be connecting with people. I would walk around, talk to locals, and take the temperature of what was happening in their communities.”
Engaging with people from different backgrounds while she traveled as a musician inspired Cruz to reconnect with her roots back home in Rhode Island. She sought to delve deeper into her family’s history in horticulture—her late father owned a farm in Cape Verde before immigrating to the U.S.—so she started working with Farm Fresh Rhode Island, a food nonprofit that supported local farmers. In talking with farmers, and learning about their concerns, she noticed the difficulties—and beauty—of this work.
“I saw the power of entrepreneurship and agriculture, but also the reality that certain policies did not work for everyone,” Cruz says. “I would work with farmers to try to figure out how to make their dollars work for them.”
Cruz started attending farming conferences, participating in agricultural speaking engagements, and working with Black farmers across the country to learn about their community’s hardships. Cruz met many people during her travels—much like when she toured as a musician.
“I would hear stories of people’s lives—their joys, triumphs, defeats—and they all mattered,” Cruz says. “I just wanted to keep meeting more of them, and I kept asking myself, ‘How can we help these farmers?’ I knew there must be more to do.”
“I would hear stories of people’s lives—their joys, triumphs, defeats—and they all mattered. I just wanted to keep meeting more of them, and I kept asking myself, ‘How can we help these farmers?’ I knew there must be more to do.”
Then, an opportunity to work as director of community engagement at the Trinity Repertory Company, a nonprofit regional theater in Providence, Rhode Island, presented itself. This was her chance to embrace her passion for helping others in an artistic space.
“I was able to create a community in my home state that was a safe space for people to bond and have difficult conversations,” Cruz says. “It was extremely powerful to listen to people’s hardships.”
Feeling called to service, Cruz discovered the Hassenfeld Public Service Fellowship for Rhode Island, which provided funding for a week-long Executive Education program at Harvard Kennedy School. She enrolled in Leadership for the 21st Century, which opened her eyes to the School’s broader offerings.
“I had no idea the Mid-Career Master in Public Administration Program existed, but when one of my professors encouraged me to apply, I decided to believe in myself and just do it,” she says.
Cruz’s top priority at HKS was meeting peers and professors that inspire her. She loved her time in David R. Gergen Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership Deval Patrick’s course MLD 385M: Leading through Public Crisis: High-Stakes Decision-Making in Chaotic Events—she especially appreciated his lessons on steadfastness and integrity when running for office. She also enjoyed the congressional simulation in DPI-120: The U.S. Congress and Law Making with Senior Lecturer in Public Policy David King, where she played the majority whip and a congresswoman from Rhode Island.
“It was fun to play pretend, but I feel like that could be reality,” Cruz reflects. “I could picture that as my future.”
Outside of the classroom, Cruz helped coordinate the Black Policy Conference. When she asked the other co-chairs if they had ever featured agriculture at the conference, they shook their heads. So, she relied on her expertise to create, curate, and moderate a panel on Black farmers.
“I wanted to honor my family and the farming families I’ve had the privilege of meeting across the nation,” Cruz says.
She invited three speakers to the panel: CBS News Correspondent Skyler Henry, who made the mini-documentary “40 Acres and A Mule” on Black land loss; Executive Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture Qiana Mickie, Cruz’s mentor who nominated her to the Minority Farmers Advisory Committee in 2021; and Director of Food Strategy at Rhode Island Commerce Georgina Sarpong, Cruz’s friend with whom she worked at Farm Fresh Rhode Island.
“It was a full-circle moment,” she reflects.
Amid her studies and extracurricular activities at HKS, Cruz found time to combine her interests in arts and public service. As co-chair of the Arts and Culture Policy Design Caucus, she organized group outings to see different performances—including one special trip to Providence to watch a play she co-created with Deborah Salem Smith and Charlie Thurston.
While working at the Trinity Repertory Company before attending HKS, Cruz created programs—including the Green Light Ghost Light Project—for veterans to share their stories as a form of drama therapy. On one occasion, a man asked for her to sing the national anthem at an event honoring his cousin, Holly A. Charette, a 21-year-old who was the first woman from Rhode Island to die in the Iraq War. Moved by this story’s impact on her community, and now in a setting to lift this story to a large audience, Cruz set out to interview as many veterans and refugees as possible about their wartime experiences.
On January 23, 2025, “Someone Will Remember Us,” which weaves together the testimonies of veterans and Iraqi refugees living in Rhode Island, premiered at the Trinity Repertory Company. The show received rave reviews—the Boston Globe called it “unforgettable” and it landed on the cover of American Theatre Magazine.
“It’s incredible what the arts does when it acts as a catalyst to telling important stories,” says Cruz.
Cruz hopes to utilize what she’s learned at HKS to run for office. With a variety of interests and the willingness to help others, she wants to do right by the “folks that have worked hard to be where they are,” she says. “I want to see the best for the people that want to see the best for themselves. I look forward to seeing how I do it next.”
Portraits by Natalie Montaner; inline images courtesy of Michelle Cruz
