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Join us for live webinars available to Harris alum to learn from public policy professionals and develop leadership skills.

A Wellness Webinar

Real Self-Care: A conversation with Pooja Lakshmin, MD

On Wednesday, February 14, 2024, CST we hosted Dr. Lakshmin to discuss her best-selling book “REAL SELF-CARE: Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included,” in which she developed and discusses a “transformative program for redefining wellness.” Her book is an NPR Best Book of 2023, and she has been featured on Good Morning America, NPR’s Code Switch, The Ezra Klein Show, The Guardian, and The New York Times.  

Headshot of Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, smilingDr. Lakshmin is a board-certified psychiatrist and contributor to The New York Times who serves as a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at George Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Lakshmin maintains an active private practice where she treats clients struggling with burnout, perfectionism, and disillusionment as well as clinical conditions like depression, anxiety, and ADHD. She frequently speaks, advises, and consults on mental health, well-being, and real self-care.  

Terri Brady, Executive Director of Professional Development at the Harris School of Public Policy hosted this webinar. Listen to learn:  

  • Why real self-care is an internal process, is really a “verb not a noun,” how and why your decision-making process about your well-being is at the core of real self-care, and unlike “faux self-care” it will not add to your “to do” list.
  • How the four principles of real self-care – setting boundaries, practicing self-compassion, determining and aligning your values, and exercising power – will help you to find wellness and ownership of your life.
  • Why it is important to prioritize our relationships and choose quality relationships where we can feel like our authentic selves.
  • Stories of individuals who advocated for themselves with real self-care and through individual actions created improved awareness and better policies for their communities, thereby demonstrating good models for public policy collective action.

Listen to the webinar here


Take Five with Terri

Terri Brady, Harris' Executive Director of Professional Development, wants to know what makes Harris Alumni tick. In Take Five with Terri, she asks Harris alums five questions about their life and careers after Harris, and about the wisdom they gained along the way.

Interview with Ross Tilchin MPP'19

1. Tell us about your personal and professional journey (where did you grow up, where do you live now, and what do you do professionally).

I grew up in the Washington D.C. area. I was raised by parents who worked in public policy-adjacent roles, so there was a lot of conversation about the role of government around the dinner table. From a young age, I was interested in the role government plays in society and the ways that research and advocacy could influence policy.

Ross Tilchin headshot in front of river and bridges
Ross Tilchin, MPP'19

I went to college and studied government and law. After a couple of internships, I became interested in going into a think-tank type role in Washington D.C. After college, I worked at the Brookings Institution for a number of years, initially in the Governance Studies program, where I was the assistant to a scholar who also served as a columnist for the Washington Post. A major learning from my time in this position was observing the role that media plays in setting the terms of debate around political and policy issues.

Interest in state and local policy

My time at Brookings began at the start of the second term of the Obama administration, where the dynamic of gridlock had really taken hold in Washington. Largely because of this, I began to focus on policymaking on the state and local level, which seemed like a more vibrant and innovative realm--less partisan gridlock, more experimentation, and more innovation. I transitioned into a research role in the Metropolitan Policy Program, where I was able to dig into a wide range of local government-relevant topics: economic development, transportation, housing, education, health, and criminal justice, among others. 

In this role, I observed how interconnected so many of the social issues are. If you have an education system that is failing, it’s going to impact your landscape of safety and criminal justice. If you have a housing market that is dysfunctional, you are going to experience higher levels of homelessness. It became clear to me that you need to look at things in a holistic way to make real progress.  

Eventually, I became interested in getting an MPP and I was drawn to Harris for a number of reasons. Like many Harris students I wanted to strengthen my quantitative skill set. In addition, I saw an opportunity to learn from the incredible number of things happening in the City of Chicago. The location and the opportunities to engage with the city were big drivers of my decision to attend Harris.  

Joined Results for America: aligned with Harris

At the time of my Harris graduation, I still wanted to do something with local governments. Results for America – the organization I work for now – came onto my radar. The organization’s mission, which is to advance the use of evidence and data in government decision-making at all levels, couldn’t be more closely aligned with what we learned at Harris. The position I was initially hired for presented an opportunity to use the skills I acquired at Harris to help local government leaders understand evidence, identify what works to promote upward economic mobility, and to accelerate the replication of evidence-based strategies.  

I graduated in June 2019 and moved to New York—these were the days when we were expected to be in a physical office, in-person, five days per week. I have been with Results for America for more than four years now and my role has grown and expanded in exciting ways. The organization has been a great fit and I felt really well prepared for it from my time at Harris.  

I am a Director on the Solutions Team at Results for America, where I lead the Economic Mobility Catalog project. The Catalog is a resource that contains content on the full landscape of strategies and programs proven to increase upward mobility. We have material on over 200 rigorously evaluated strategies and programs and over 50 case studies that tell the stories of how specific jurisdictions have implemented these strategies.

Project helps local government leaders

The Catalog has been very successful. We created it in close partnership with about a dozen senior local leaders--chiefs of staff, directors of policy, and directors of performance and innovation, etc.--to help us understand what local leaders really need to know when they are interested in a new program. Within government, what is the information you need and what are the questions folks will ask as you are trying to persuade your colleagues? Externally, what is the content and the information you need to engage or answer community members’ questions? What do you need to know if you encounter resistance from political opponents, or a group that might be delivering an alternative service?  

We have tried hard to put ourselves in the shoes of local leaders as they are trying to both build support within government and then outside government for these new approaches. We want to hand it to them in a package that feels digestible, that feels easily navigable, and feels like it is made for them. Government leaders are a specific kind of audience, and just like all other audiences, if they feel like the content meets their specific needs, they are much more likely to engage with it.  

An entrepreneurial role with additional Harris support

The Catalog was just an idea when I came aboard at RFA. I had to figure out how to manage vendors to build a website, create a whole site architecture, and bootleg a user-experience testing process. Now the team has grown in size and we have thousands of pages of content housed in the site. It was all done in a way that feels navigable, is not overwhelming, and directly tailored to its specific audience.  

I feel very fortunate to have landed in this role, and to have the opportunity to be entrepreneurial with the Catalog product. The first hire I made was also a Harris student, Gabi Remz (MPP ‘20), who now works for the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab. Other Harris students have also been terrific short-term contributors. The reason I continue to return to Harris is that I know these students are receiving training that is well-tailored to what the Catalog team needs.  

2. Please describe a recent work project that you found particularly challenging or interesting and tell us why.

One question that we are wrestling with as an organization and on my team is how to empower local leaders to implement evidence-based solutions while also empowering existing community-based groups to deliver those strategies. There is an interesting dynamic in the social policy world: in specific policy areas there are longstanding well- established and well-resourced organizations that are national in scope and deliver great programs. They have been able to afford very expensive evaluations that demonstrate their effectiveness, which gives them a significant advantage when competing for government contracts in cities, counties, or states across the country.

This is not a bad thing per se. It’s wonderful that particular organizations have been able to develop a terrific model and replicate that work across many different locations. The benefit to individuals and communities is enormous. At the same time, there are very high-performing community-based nonprofits that are also delivering excellent programming, but they haven’t been able to afford the expensive randomized control trials that demonstrate the effectiveness of their programs.

The challenge for us as an organization and as a catalogue team is: how do we enable local leaders to feel confident enough in their understanding of the evidence to empower community-based groups to deliver programming in accordance with national best practices? For example, if local leaders know what makes for an effective summer learning program, why bring in a New York- or Boston-based nonprofit to deliver those services when you can contract with a community-based group who is delivering a similar evidence-based intervention?  

Building relationships through trust

Marketing has become an increasingly important aspect of this job. One thing that is effective is working jurisdiction by jurisdiction to build relationships. We spend time with the policy team in a particular city and ask about the issues in the mayor’s office. What are the priorities? Chances are that we are going to have content that is relevant to those issues. Progress for us moves at the speed of trust, and you don’t build trust without personal time spent together. We build on those relationships as a team and as an organization. Relationships are so critical!  

3. What aspects of your Harris education have been most valuable to you in your career?

An important part of my job is being literate around research design. The statistics training I received at Harris has been really helpful. I gained a better understanding of program evaluation as I learned what a rigorously designed study looks like. I frequently need to be able to read an academic study, get a sense of the research design, and assess if the findings are significant.  

Policy Labs course was fantastic

There were so many opportunities that I had at Harris and at the University of Chicago that were incredibly valuable. Sticking to more course work: the Policy Lab course that I did was fantastic. I had the opportunity to work with the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) on a project focused on improving physical mobility for people with disabilities in Chicago. We mapped out the challenges that people with disabilities faced as they were trying to move around the city and the opportunities to improve services provided to them.  

That Policy Labs course was a fabulous experience in understanding perspectives of a lot of different stakeholder groups, seeing the difficulties various public systems had interacting with one another, and understanding the opportunities and the tradeoffs for working with private sector actors like rideshare companies. It was a terrific crash course in learning to engage with groups who had different opinions, and then turning those opinions into a coherent set of recommendations for MPC and the City.  

That is so much of my work now. I am frequently interacting with experts and practitioners, and people often have very different interpretations of factors driving success, obstacles to look out for, and how to build support for a new initiative, etc. Learning how to navigate a lot of different stakeholder groups was a clear takeaway of the Policy Labs course.  

Founded the Urban Policy Student Association; builds network and entrepreneurial skills

When The defining part of my experience as a Harris student was starting the Urban Policy Student Association with my friend Andrew Miller (MPP '19).  

My experience co-leading the organization was so meaningful, and I felt so supported by staff and faculty at Harris. Specifically, the office of Student Affairs was fantastic in helping us put on some really cool events. There are an immense number of people doing interesting policy work in the city of Chicago, so it felt easy to get great speakers focused on a range of policy areas. It was also a great opportunity to build my personal network in the city and beyond.  

I also had a couple of great internships during my time at UChicago. I worked with an economic development consulting firm based in Chicago, RW Ventures, that was engaged in some complex and interesting economic development projects. I also worked in the Chicago office of Enterprise Community Partners, a community development-focused organization. In that role, I focused on an equitable transit-oriented development project, which ultimately led to significant policy change.  

All in all, I loved Chicago and thought I would stay forever. But then Results for America snatched me away!

4. What is an ideal fun day off for you?

Ross sitting at an electric keyboard outside, smiling
Ross playing piano at a recent gig

I currently live in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. An ideal fun day off for me probably includes a big bike ride to a part of the city where I don’t spend that much time. I like to do something cultural – go to a museum, see some music, eat some interesting food, and just generally explore. I’m a big urbanism nerd. Architecture and urban design captivate me, and I love exploring new cities or neighborhoods, seeing what the buildings are like, getting a feel for the public spaces, and generally experiencing the culture.  

5. What piece of “counter-intuitive” advice would you give your “Harris self” now?

I think the core does a nice job equipping you with important skills and modes of thinking for any direction you want to go in public policy. And I loved courses like Crime Policy with Jens Ludwig that would take the tools learned in the core and apply them in a particular policy domain.  

The Harris courses that are taught by practitioners were also really interesting. Taking a few of these opened my eyes to the wide stakeholder landscapes that exist across any policy issue. To learn from the experience and wisdom of these folks was so helpful. There are obviously some real all- star academics at Harris and I don’t mean to dimmish their work whatsoever, but to learn from a very accomplished person who has seen how change is made in a particular policy area is invaluable. You just don’t get that experience in any other walk of life. Sign up for those courses and take good notes! 


Read Up

Stay informed about important professional development and leadership topics. Our curated and insightful articles highlight connections to our webinar speakers. 

High-Performing Professionals Run on Self Awareness
A commentary by Terri Brady about developing self-awareness, which requires curiosity, humility, and courage.

How to Network When There Are No Networking Events
Our initial webinar speaker, thought leader Dorie Clark, wrote a piece in Harvard Business Review on how to network when there are no networking events.

Master of Influence: The “Notorious RBG” Used Persuasion to Advance Equality
A commentary by Terri Brady about how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used the persuasion tools of framing, building relationships, and asking strategic questions to change policy and laws.

The Power of Networking: A Harris Connection Story
When Harris alumna Mary Michaud, MPP ’95, connected with Analiese Wagner, MPP ’20 and Sarah Gill, MPP ’20 it triggered a powerful chain of subsequent connections and events. And it all began with a single email.


Listen Up

Explore our collection of webinar series and individual events to hear from experts on a range of topics related to professional development and leadership.

Listen to past webinars from the Communicating Public Policy Series, the Transition Series, the Influencing Series, the Leadership Series, and the Wellness Series.

New Webinar Series: Harris Alumni Policy Panels

First Up: Energy and the Environment

We initiated a new webinar series under the banner “Impact Harris: Alumni Policy Panels.” Each panel will feature a different topic area and alumni who will moderate and participate as panelists. We are excited to hear from our alumni who will be sharing their policy expertise and experiences and their career journeys. The first one titled “Energy Transition” on December 12, 2023, produced an engaging discussion about energy policy and the challenges and opportunities for energy transition with three people who brought a diversity of knowledge and experience:  

Headshot of Cate Hight
Cate Hight, MPP '07

Our moderator and panelist Cate Hight (MPP ’07) is a Partner at Bain and Company, focused on corporate sustainability and carbon transition. Cate supports clients across industries and geographies in decarbonizing their operations and strategy. Prior to Bain, Cate served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Mission Possible Partnership, an alliance of climate leaders focused on the decarbonization of heavy industry and transport. Cate also has deep expertise in oil and gas methane abatement. She led the development of MiQ at the Rocky Mountain Institute and spent ten years at the US Environmental Protection Agency. At the EPA, Cate managed the oil and gas program of the Global Methane Initiative and played a key role in the development of key greenhouse gas regulations. Cate also co-authored the book Pricing Carbon when she worked for the Mission Climat of the Caisse des Depots in Paris.  

Headshot of Carolina Rojas-Hayes
Carolina Rojas-Hayes, MPP '06

Panelist Carolina Rojas-Hayes (MPP ’06) is the President (CEO) of the Colombian Biofuels Federation where she has led initiatives to advance the adoption of biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol for sustainable mobility. Carolina is a seasoned professional in public policy, strategic relations, and sustainability with two decades of expertise in the public sector, international organizations, and consultancy. Her extensive background includes serving as Colombia’s Vice Minister of Mines and holding key leadership positions in the National Mining Agency and the Ministry of Finance. Carolina has contributed to global initiatives, working with institutions like the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining and Metals. She also serves on the board of various public utilities, international organizations, and NGOs.  

Headshot of Dan Mitch
Dan Misch, MA '19

Panelist Dan Misch (MA ’19) is an entrepreneurial leader with nuclear and renewable energy experience across private industry, government, military and nonprofits. As Vice President of Renewables Asset Management at Invenergy, Dan is leading the international expansion of Invenergy’s renewable energy services business to Latin America and Europe. Previously, Dan served as a Federal Project Director for the US Department of Energy conducting programmatic oversight of investments at Argonne National Laboratory. He also served in the US Navy as a certified nuclear engineer on board ballistic missile submarines. Dan is the founder of the Veterans Advance Energy Project which educates military veterans on the importance of clean energy transition to US national security through an annual summit and fellowship. In addition to other awards, he was recognized as a Notable Military Veteran Executive by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2022, was included in the 2020 LGBTQIA Out Leadership List by Out in National Security and New America, and was a 2020 Emerging Leader with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Dan’s writing has been featured in NBC News, The Hill, Morning Consult, and Energy News Network.  

This webinar is hosted by Terri Brady, Executive Director of Professional Development, and the Harris ARD team.

The opinions expressed in this webinar are solely the opinions of the participants and do not represent the opinions of their organizations. Go here to listen to this webinar. 

A Communicating Public Policy Webinar

Getting From Here to There: A Conversation with Transit Expert Jay Walder

Headshot of Jay Walder, smilingOn Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 2:00 pm CST the Harris community joined us for a conversation with transit expert Jay Walder who led organizations that provided transportation across the globe (London, Hong Kong, New York) and in practically every mode of transportation from subways to trains to biking and even the futuristic hyperloop pod. 

This webinar continued our series “Communicating Public Policy” with a leader who has used the power of communications in various modes and in multiple policy situations. While he was the Managing Director for Finance and Planning at Transport for London he introduced the Oyster card, which the New York Times called a “high-tech transit reform” which “helped turn London’s aging transit system into an envy of the globe.” When he was the Chairman and CEO of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest transit agency in the United States, he led the company through the 2009 economic crisis. 

As President and CEO of Motivate International, the largest bike sharing company in the United States, he took over a struggling company and led a dramatic turnaround before its sale to Lyft. Under his leadership at Virgin Hyperloop, the company raised more than $400 million, qualified for US Federal Transportation funding, and hosted the first people to ever ride in a hyperloop pod. 

Currently Mr. Walder is a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company and serves on a number of boards. 

Listen to this webinar to learn:

  • About Jay’s career path from his first job as an analyst with an MPP degree at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to eventually heading that same agency, and the opportunities, challenges, and joys of working in the transportation field in both the public and private sectors. Hint: it’s different to be a consultant!
     
  • How the introduction of a new initiative at Transport for London when Jay led the development of the Oyster card was part of a strategic change to increase accessibility, ease the payment process, cut costs and increase the speed of “getting from here to there” for travelers.
     
  • The importance of transparency and communication to stakeholders (e.g., press conferences and videos) when initiating change and why leaders should listen to their constituents’ concerns to add perspective and overcome potential bias or narrow thinking.
     
  • How Jay and the bike-sharing team at Motivate brought their values to their mission by increasing wellness, increasing accessibility for public housing residents, and creating programs such as “how to ride a bike” to benefit individuals and their communities.

Listen to the webinar here.

Asking Power Questions: The Secret to Leadership Communication

Ester Choy

On Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 2:00 PM CDT we hosted Esther Choy for a  presentation and interview. Esther Choy, combines the science of persuasion with the art of storytelling. Esther started teaching leadership storytelling in 2010, before it was a “thing."  

As CEO of the Leadership Story Lab, Esther Choy understands that storytelling is a valuable asset for a leader, and a skill that everyone can learn and use to be more influential. This workshop presentation and interview will focus on an underutilized aspect of leadership communication: how to ask “power questions.”  Asking the right questions will help you to connect with your clients and colleagues, and with audiences of all sizes, in a meaningful way. 

The Leadership Story Lab has worked with people in a wide range of industries from tech to airlines, healthcare, manufacturing, investing, and policy work. Esther’s book Let the Story Do the Work, quickly shot to the #1 New Release on Amazon in 2017. She is currently a contributor for Forbes’ Leadership Strategy channel and her thought leadership has appeared in leading media outlets including The New York Times and Entrepreneur.com. She is also the executive producer and host of the Kellogg School of Management’s podcast Family IN Business.  

Esther graduated with a BA in business economics from UC Santa Barbara, an MS in Education from Texas A&M University, and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. She begins every Monday morning with a 1000-meter swim and a raw jalapeno.  

Esther was a previous guest in our webinar series “Influencing” where she drew a huge audience and rave reviews. Everyone who attended will be receiving a copy of her book Let the Story Do the Work

Terri Brady, Executive Director of Professional Development at the Harris School of Public Policy hosted this webinar and interview.  

This webinar was not recorded.

Achieving Systemic Change: How A City Learned to Improve its Schools

Penny Sebring
Penny Sebring, PhD

Penny Sebring, PhD, is the Co-Founder of the UChicago Consortium on School Research (“the Consortium”) and the co-author of a new book about educational reform and improvement in the Chicago schools. Our webinar with Penny includes both a presentation and a Q and A session with important insights and critical lessons for all policy makers. Reviewers of her new book have called it “compelling” and “of monumental importance.”

Educators will find this webinar about the successful creation of school improvement enlightening, and all policy makers will be inspired by the lessons about the significance of research, strong advocacy, building individual and organizational capacity, and moving the needle on systemic change. Since its founding in 1990, the Consortium has conducted numerous and detailed studies providing insights and guidance to the Chicago Public Schools. This collaboration, along with successful partnerships with other key actors, resulted in unprecedented increases in Chicago school benchmarks, including increased learning rates, graduation rates, and college matriculation. The story of this thirty-year school reform effort makes this webinar a “must watch.”

Penny Bender Sebring is a graduate of Grinnell College and earned a PhD in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University. She is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Chicago, has authored the book “Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago,” and serves as a board member for Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy, the Chicago Public Education Fund, and Kids First Chicago.

Listen to this webinar to learn:

  • Why the improvement in the Chicago public schools is a story of “democracy in action.” It began with a policy change embedded in a law that decentralized the entire school system, placing the locus for change at the school level with principals, local school boards, and their communities as the agents for change.
     
  • How an ambitious evidence-based campaign to keep the public informed on the progress of key reform initiatives by the Consortium, a collaborative media partner, and other engaged stakeholders provided conceptual frameworks for social learning and a key communications strategy for creating and sustaining reforms.
     
  • How the “exoskeleton” of research organizations, teachers and school leaders, philanthropic organizations, the business community, educational institutions, and individuals formed unprecedented partnerships, created “boundary spanners,” and networks to build capacity for individuals and organizations to transform an entire school system.
     
  • How policy leaders can embrace ambitious goals, build relationships, consume learning, convene people, and use evidence to make progress on policy challenges and change systems.

Listen to the webinar here.

"Winning with Emotional Intelligence": From the Highly Successful Pitch Man for the Mastercard “Priceless” Campaign

Kevin Allen headshot
Kevin Allen, PhD

Kevin Allen has been called the “modern day mad man” by Publishers Weekly. During his storied career at the top of ad giant McCann WorldGroup he led the development of the Priceless platform for Mastercard. He is the author of  the Wall Street Journal Bestseller, The Hidden Agenda: A Proven Way to Win Business and Create a Following.

After his time at McCann, Kevin Allen was the Chief Growth Officer at the Interpublic Group of Companies. He was a key advisor to NYC Mayors and a member of the board for the AIDS quilt.

Kevin is also an award winning Ed-Tech entrepreneur. Currently he is the Founder and CEO of E I Games, creators of online simulations and courseware in Emotional Intelligence business skills: leadership, diversity, project management, entrepreneurship, and communication. The simulations and courses are in use at companies such as Google, Oracle, Expedia, and universities such as Duke and the Harvard School of Design. 

Kevin holds a PhD in Management specializing in Organizational Psychology, and a master’s degree in Marketing. He holds a number of academic positions: Adjunct Professor of Marketing and Advertising at Florida Atlantic University, a Fellow at Ball State University, and a visiting lecturer at North Carolina State, Grinnell College, and the Harvard School of Design. 

Kevin’s insights and experience in communications made him the perfect guest for our series on Communicating Public Policy.  Listen to the webinar to learn:

  • How “the art of” emotional intelligence helped Kevin to pitch and win business with clients as diverse as MasterCard, Marriott, and South African Airways.
     
  • How you can identify and connect with the audience’s “hidden agenda” (the audience’s emotional motivation) using the “Allen Key” framework to find their wants, values, and needs, and “real ambitions.”
     
  • Kevin’s framework for profiling the audience into four categories using an interactive exercise to help with “the ask.”
     
  • Specific questions to learn about your audience, tips on listening skills, storytelling suggestions, and other insights for "commanding" your pitch.

Listen to the webinar here.


Speak Up

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If you have questions about professional development, or you would like us to explore specific subjects, contact Terri Brady, Executive Director of Professional Development at tbrady@uchicago.edu.

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Send questions to the Chicago Policy Review editor in chief at editor.in.chief@chicagopolicyreview.org.