Campus & Community

HKS announces new case study fund

2 min read

Alum donates $500,000 to establish fund, research endowment

In response to a growing need for experience-based teaching materials, Joseph B. Tompkins Jr. has given $500,000 to Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) to establish a case study fund and research endowment in his name. Tompkins is a graduate of both Harvard Law School (J.D. ’74) and HKS (M.P.P. ’75).

HKS classes use case studies for both degree-program and executive education students to facilitate learning about policy and management strategies in the public and nonprofit sectors. In addition, the cases are taught at universities worldwide at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Tompkins’ gift will enable HKS to nearly double its annual case output to expand and update its collection, which is the largest library of cases on public and nonprofit issues in the world.

“This gift will have a significant impact on the Kennedy School’s ability to prepare a new generation of leaders to work for positive change on graduation,” said David T. Ellwood, HKS dean and Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy. “The top-quality cases this gift will help produce will be of critical importance in accomplishing the task of preparing the next generation of effective public leaders in this particularly complex time.”

Tompkins, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, is a former deputy chief of the Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. He handles complex national and international litigation for Sidley Austin’s clients.

Tompkins said, “The Kennedy School was important to me when I was here as a student, and it has been important to me and to a lot of other people ever since then, including my son, Graves, and my daughter-in-law, Colleen, who met while they were in school here.  By making this gift to expand the School’s case-writing capacity, I hope to further enhance the Kennedy School’s impact on the world.”