Carol Grodzins, director of international programs at the Kennedy School. Photo by Jon Chase

Picture a rice field in Burma. "It has that green that’s like no other green; it’s emerald and sparkly and beautiful," says Carol Grodzins, director of international student programs at the Kennedy School of Government. "And in the midst of the fields are these 11th-century temples."

Now picture a baby with sores on her head, bowed legs, and the big belly of malnutrition. This, too, Grodzins saw on her trip to Burma in 1999. The village she visited, just outside the capital city, Yangon, had no plumbing, limited electricity, and dirt roads.

"When I’m in Burma I get so angry that things are the way they are," Grodzins says. She adds, "Change takes place because of individuals who are really pretty rare people – and who, like business entrepreneurs, see a problem, come up with an innovative solution, and then are relentless in making that solution a reality."

Grodzins is speaking about the Mason Fellows, leaders from developing countries whom she has recruited in the past to study public policy and management at the Kennedy School. But she could be describing herself. Grodzins is committed to making the world a better place.

"When I see things that aren’t right, I’ve just got to do something about it," she says.

Grodzins became interested in international development as a Peace Corps worker in Borneo. From 1967 to 1969, she taught primary school and worked at a hospital there. She also started a Red Cross chapter and educated people in nutrition, hygiene, and water safety.

The Peace Corps taught Grodzins respect for other cultures, she says. She questions the term "developing," citing the rich indigenous culture of so-called developing countries. And she says of the farmers she knew in Borneo, "They may not have had any formal education, but they were so wise. They knew how to preserve their land."

Grodzins defines poverty as "a lack of opportunity – for health and education and choices."

As director of the Edward S. Mason Fellows Program from 1993 to 1998, Grodzins traveled to 35 "developing" countries, searching for future leaders of economic and political change.

"As much as we’d like to think we’ll have no more poverty, we’ll have no more disease, we’ll have no more financial crises, that’s hardly likely. So how do we learn how to achieve economic growth with social justice?"

After the Peace Corps, Grodzins became a nurse, wife, and mother. In the late 1970s, she turned her energies to changing birthing practices in Boston.

At that time, women often gave birth while in "twilight sleep." Medication prevented them from fully experiencing childbirth. Fathers were rarely present in the delivery room.

"To have a baby is not a ‘medical procedure,’" Grodzins says. "It’s life. And why not be surrounded by people who care about you and can help you through it, and who, by being involved with that experience, bond better with you and with the baby?"

Grodzins taught classes in natural childbirth, assisted during births, and taught postpartum classes to help couples adjust to parenthood.

She became a nurse, she says, "because I wanted to nurture and I wanted to teach. And I wanted to really care for people."

Grodzins leads from the heart. But her formidable analytical and organizational skills translate her passionate impulses into realities. In the mid-1980s, galvanized by a film about nuclear warfare, Grodzins quit her job as a nurse and became involved in the nuclear freeze movement.

She helped organize the congressional campaigns of pro-freeze candidates Edward Markey and John Kerry. She held house parties designed to educate people on the issue. She joined the Lexington, Mass., town meeting and the Democratic committee.

Her father once said, "I always tried to teach you moderation. And you never got it."

This past year, Grodzins continued to come up with solutions to problems. She helped create a new degree program at the Kennedy School. The Master’s in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) trains students to become practitioners, not just theorists, in international development.

Students, half of whom are from developing countries, will study economics, management, and governance. They can specialize in such areas as the environment, the social sector, trade and finance, and business/government relations.

Grodzins traveled widely this past year, gathering ideas for the program from academics, consultants, and members of the World Bank and the Peace Corps. She played a key role in securing scholarships for students from developing countries. She worked on marketing and publicity for the program as well.

"Her knowledge of the field of international development, her wide network of contacts, and her enthusiasm have been key in getting the program off the ground," says Carol Finney, director of the program.

This coming year, in her new role as director of international student programs, Grodzins will work on recruiting, curriculum development, financial aid, and student programs and services for the entire international population at the Kennedy School.

Two final images from Burma:

A slight woman in a green and magenta sarong, her dark hair pulled back and fixed with a flower. This is Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of Burma’s democracy movement.

And this: A willowy blonde woman arguing with military police down the road from Aung San Suu Kyi’s house. This is Carol Grodzins, who met with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1996, then returned to the Burmese leader’s home a week later to find the way barred by soldiers. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under intense pressure from the military government for several years.

"Carol is an idealist," says Paula Jacobson, current director of the Mason Fellows Program. "She hasn’t lost the Peace Corps spirit. This idealism feeds her support of innovators and changemakers in civil society."