Five faculty members appointed to Emma Bloomberg chairs

Harvard has appointed five new Emma Bloomberg faculty members, expanding a distinguished group of scholars whose work addresses complex problems facing cities worldwide. The endowed chairs, established with a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies and named for Emma Bloomberg, M.B.A. ’07, M.P.A. ’07, support leading scholars who advance the study and practice of city governance.

“Harvard is a proud partner in the work of building more resilient communities and serving the public good,” said President Alan M. Garber. “The Emma Bloomberg chairs, supporting talent from across the University, exemplify our commitment to cities and the people who inhabit them. I am grateful, as always, to Bloomberg Philanthropies for supporting academic excellence at Harvard and eager, as ever, to see what my faculty colleagues accomplish in the years to come.”

Along with six current Emma Bloomberg faculty — Rawi Abdelal, Maurice Cox, Jorrit de Jong, Anthony Foxx, Kimberlyn Leary, and Elizabeth Linos — these scholars will hold Emma Bloomberg chairs for the next five years:

• Nestor Davidson, a professor of real estate at Harvard Graduate School of Design and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Law School, explores questions around transactional dynamics in real estate and regulatory frameworks for real estate markets. His work includes influential scholarship on the way local, state, and federal legal and institutional structures interact in shaping policy affecting cities. His career in public service includes leadership roles at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the New York State Housing Finance Agency, and the New York City Rent Guidelines Board.

• Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, an associate professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, is a political scientist who focuses on policy areas such as housing, transportation, policing, and economic development. His work explores both the determinants of local elections and the policy consequences of those elections. With funding from the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, he is launching regular citywide surveys to measure resident policy preferences and satisfaction with local government to inform better policy decisions and enable broader research on urban governance. His scholarship has earned prestigious awards from the American Political Science Association. Reflecting his interest in the practical applications of scholarship, de Benedictis-Kessner created an urban politics field lab that connects student teams with cities across New England to tackle real-world policy issues.

• Jan Rivkin, the C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, focuses on business strategy and the competitiveness of the United States. His competitiveness work examines how business leaders can best work with policymakers, nonprofit leaders, educators, and others to bring shared prosperity to America’s communities. Along with colleagues, Rivkin runs a leadership development program that helps local leaders collaborate more effectively across sectors. He teaches in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and has conducted research with the Bloomberg Center for Cities on cross-sector collaboration.

• Rachel Weber, professor and newly appointed chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the GSD, is an urban planner who explores how finance shapes the urban landscape by changing the ways cities budget, fund infrastructure, and manage their assets. Her professional experience includes helping nonprofits to negotiate and implement redevelopment plans and appointments to governmental task forces such as then-mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Tax Increment Financing Reform Task Force.

• Mitchell Weiss, the Richard L. Menschel Professor of Management Practice at HBS, focuses on innovation in the public sector, on startups that serve it, and on the intersection of artificial intelligence and governments. He created and teaches the school’s course on public entrepreneurship. His current efforts concentrate on AI, including new research and coursework on AI in cities. He draws on his experience as chief of staff to former Boston Mayor Tom Menino in these roles and in his collaborations with the Bloomberg Center for Cities. He co-chairs the New Mayors: First 100 Days program and teaches innovation in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

 “We are pleased to recognize these extraordinary faculty,” said Provost John F. Manning. “Widely renowned in their fields, each is dedicated to working across disciplines, committed to evidence-based decision making and focused on impactful research that improves municipal government.”

“Advancing research on urban problem-solving is central to our mission,” said de Jong, director of Bloomberg Center for Cities and Emma Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at HKS. “The Emma Bloomberg faculty are just one example of how Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropic vision and support from Bloomberg Philanthropies are changing the field and making a meaningful difference in the world.”