Bond with HKS alumni who share your commitment to public policy in specific areas of interest. If you are interested in starting a Shared Interest Group, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations and Resource Development.

We currently have seven Shared Interest Groups (SIGs):

Current Shared Interest Groups

Founded in 2015, the Adaptive Leadership Alumni aim to strengthen people's leadership capacity to meet the adaptive opportunities and challenges facing organizations and societies around the world.

Goals include:

  • Providing a holding environment for cooperation and learning within a community of practitioners and educators
  • Linking like-minded people with each other and with the latest materials on leadership practice and education
  • Fostering the establishment and continuity of alumni consultation groups to support people to "lead and stay alive" as they face important challenges in their work lives
  • Creating a network of referral for alumni seeking to teach or consult in adaptive leadership
  • Further developing the theory and methods of adaptive leadership practice and education

Contact information

Laura Berlind MPP 2002, Executive Director
 

The HKS Alumni Pride Caucus was formed in 2021 by a group of HKS alumni looking to create a formal voice to more effectively engage with and serve the needs of LGBTQIA+ alumni. The Caucus has met bi-monthly with HKS Alumni Association staff members, who have periodically shared updates with campus administrators. Together, they know that they will build an inclusive community that makes everyone proud.

Their goals are to:

  • Establish a vibrant community for HKS alumni and organize events that promote professional networking, social interactions, and education/discussion of LGBTQIA+ issues.
  • Connect LGBTQIA+ alumni, current students, and faculty for mentorship, professional networking, and recruitment.
  • Strengthen the relationship between the LGBTQIA+ alumni community and the school.
  • Provide social, professional, and educational support for current LGBTQIA+ students and allies.


Leadership:

  • Leoule Goshu MPP 2014
  • David Grasso MPP 2009


Click here to visit their website and sign-up for updates.

The Harvard Kennedy School Black Alumni Association (HKS BAA), is one of the Kennedy School’s many Shared Interest Groups (SIG) for alumni with specific interests and affinities. Started informally in the 1980s while the school was still known as the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), the organization was revitalized in 2009 and became an officially recognized Harvard Kennedy School SIG in 2016.

The BAA aims to: 

  • Deepen understanding among Harvard Kennedy School alumni of social, economic, justice, health, and civic issues facing Black communities in the United States and around the world while raising awareness of potential policies and strategies to make these societies more fair, just, and equitable. 
  • Promote diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and a culture of anti-racism at HKS and within the HKS community. 
  • Strengthen connections and engagement of members with one another, current students, and HKS for mutual benefit and advancement.
  • Support and advance the HKS educational and public service mission.

Rudy N. Brioché MPP 2000, President
Annette P. Raggette MPP 1994, Vice-President
Rodas G. Seyoum MC/MPA 2021, Secretary 
Oliver Queen, Jr. HKSEE 2014, Treasurer
Kia Coleman MPP 1999, Communications Director
René M. Rambo-Rodgers MC/MPA 1990, Director at Large
Orondaam Otto MC/MPA 2022, Director at Large

HKS-ETAA gathers HKS alumni interested in questions of impact and governance of emerging technologies to. This includes artificial intelligence, neuro-technologies, and gene editing among others. Echoing J.F. Kennedy’s famous vision, it seems that “we stand today on the edge of a new frontier.” Since the turn of the 21st century, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive sciences (NBIC) are converging and changing the elementary building blocks of matter and machines, our bodies and brains, and even our societies and environment. As our understanding and control over these elements dramatically increases in the coming decades, our societies will be confronted with an array of crucial ethical questions and policy choices. HKS-ETAA aims to address the profound consequences of the current technological explosion. Our mission is to help build a future that enables human flourishing.

Leadership:
Jimena Barerra HKSEE 2021

Kris Buquet HKSEE 2020

The HKS State & Local Alumni Association connects HKS alumni interested in state and local policy and administration. There are HKS alumni doing awesome work across the country. The SIG’s goal is to better connect that network, share information amongst its members, leverage members’ knowledge and connections to help current HKS students find employment opportunities, and generally work together to improve outcomes at the state and local level across our country.

While national-level policy attracts substantial attention, real progress requires action at more grassroots levels. Someone has to get the work done, and therein often lies the real challenge. At the same time, state and local practitioners often lack connection to each other, operating without the benefit of each other’s experience. The SIG will strive to become a platform to improve the connection between HKS alumni, so that we can all do better work together.

For more information, please contact Juliahna Green MPP 2022
 

W3D (Women in Defense, Diplomacy and Development) is an alumnae network ready to answer President Kennedy’s call to service, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” In that spirit, the women of HKS decided to create an innovative network to build on established HKS relationships. Founded with the idea that trusted relationships and inclusive groups are the keys to real collaboration, the W3D alumni network aims to break down the barriers among defense, diplomacy, and development to create holistic foreign policy decisions and solutions for the United States. This alumnae network also acknowledges the untapped and underutilized power of women. It helps to develop and promote the role of women in leadership, keeping a focus on the common goal of sustainable peace through gender equality.

Goals include:

  • Creating an active network to promote increased women’s participation and representation at all levels of national security
  • Fostering men’s engagement in promoting gender equality
  • Cultivating women as thought leaders in defense, diplomacy, and development.
  • Promoting dialogue, information sharing, and networking to support women working on global peace and security initiatives

Contact information

General Inquiries
Membership Inquiries

The mission of the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Women’s Network is to connect, support, and amplify the efforts of women and nonbinary people who are HKS students and alumnae in authentic, meaningful, and powerful ways. This includes:

  • Connecting women who are alumnae of the Harvard Kennedy School across geographies, backgrounds, and areas of expertise;
  • Supporting and growing the community of women affiliated with HKS;
  • Partnering with the Harvard Kennedy School Office of Alumni Relations, current student body, the Women and Public Policy Program, and Harvard University to strengthen the network and provide opportunities for collaboration and support;
  • Fostering a spirit of engagement around policy issues, systemic challenges, employment opportunities, and other issues that may arise in the respective community; and
  • Organizing collectively to make the world a fairer, equitable, and just place for women, non-binary individuals, and those who identify as women in a way that is meaningful to them, everywhere.

The group is open to any HKS graduate who identifies as female or nonbinary gender, as well as men looking to be allies.

Contact information

Tatiana Der Avedissian HKSEE 2019, Co-President
Farah Arabe HKSEE 2018, Co-President

If your city or region is not listed, email Executive Board Member Majd Steitieh for more information on becoming a HKSWN Chapter Lead.