Six grad students named Rappaport Fellows

Six Harvard University graduate students are among the 13 local graduate students who will spend the summer working in key state agencies as Rappaport Public Policy Fellows.

Now in its 10th year, the fellowship is a unique program that gives talented young graduate students throughout greater Boston the opportunity to help public officials address key problems and, in doing so, to learn more about how public policy is created and implemented.  The fellowship is funded and administered by Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, which strives to improve the governance of the region by strengthening connections between scholars, students, officials, and civic leaders.

Rappaport Public Policy Fellows

HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL
Lalita Booth, who is in the joint Master in Public Policy (MPP)/Master in Business Administration (MBA) program at HKS and Harvard Business School, will work at the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services.

First-year MPP students Jennifer Vorse and Michael Zakaras will work in the office of Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino on the Circle of Promise Initiative, which seeks to break the cycle of poverty by linking ambitious efforts to turn around troubled schools in the city’s disadvantaged neighborhoods with other programs, assets, and resources in those neighborhoods.

HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
Michael Honigberg, who recently completed his first year at Harvard Medical School (HMS), will work for the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy in the Performance Measurement Group. His primary task will be to produce a descriptive report on healthcare systems integration.

Ravi Parikh, who also finished his first year at HMS, will work for the Joint Committee on Health Care Policy and produce a report for the Massachusetts House of Representatives on pending legislation regarding the scope of practice of non-physician allied health professionals. He will also work on a project to analyze the effect of Massachusetts’ shift to global provider payments on single- or small group- practice physicians.

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCES
Jeremy Levine, a second-year doctoral student in sociology, also will work for Mayor Menino on the Circle of Promise Initiative. Levine has analyzed local community development policies in Detroit, the impact of unequal access to public transportation, and transportation policy as a means of combating urban poverty.

To read the full announcement.