Richardson Fellows are named

Recipients of this year’s Elliot and Anne Richardson Fellowships in Public Service will be working in locales as distant as Africa and as close as Boston. Their efforts will assist children and adults on a wide variety of issues.

This year’s fellows are:

Anne Beckett ’04, of Phoenix, Ariz., a social studies concentrator at Harvard, will travel to Kampala, Uganda, where she will focus on orphan-care issues. She will be based at the Little Angels Babies’ Home and will intern at SOS-Kinderdorf’s Children’s Village in nearby Entebbe. Her postgraduate career plans are to do social work with a focus on child-care issues in either the United States or East Africa.

Sara Mixter ’04, a history and science concentrator from Chevy Chase, Md., has designed a fellowship position at the Boston Medical Center that will bridge the Family Advocacy Program (FAP) and Project Health’s direct advocacy work with clients. After the fellowship, she will attend medical school and eventually work as a pediatrician in an urban hospital or health center where she can pursue patient and policy advocacy.

Laura Weidman ’04, who hails from New York City and concentrated in psychology, will spearhead a project to expand CityStep, a student-run public service organization. This expansion will ensure a continuing and self-sustaining program in West Philadelphia and at the University of Pennsylvania, and it will be modeled closely on CityStep/Cambridge. Weidman plans to pursue a career in public service, with a primary interest in youth development and education.

The Richardson Fellowships are designed to encourage and enhance the pursuit of careers in public service, to emphasize Harvard’s commitment to the value of this service, and to pay tribute to Elliot and Anne Richardson, who as individuals and as a team exemplified the highest ideals of public service. Elliot Richardson held three successive Cabinet posts during the Nixon administration, as well as an ambassadorship and a Cabinet post in the Ford administration. Anne Richardson joined the national efforts of Reading Is Fundamental during its infancy and served as its chair from 1981 to 1996. Both enjoyed long and diverse records of service at Harvard and are the only husband and wife to have served on Harvard’s Board of Overseers.