Alumni Profile: Asma Afzal, MPP’21

Asma Afzal, MPP'21, admits she was anything but a "math person" before entering the Master of Public Policy program at Harris. “I’d managed to avoid stats courses for all of my undergraduate career. But at Harris I completed the Data Analytics Certification. To go from dreading math to earning that certificate has definitely been a wonderful journey.”

Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, Afzal had completed her bachelor’s with a major in political science and a minor in history at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) then worked for two years at Acasus. "Working alongside policymakers on health issues concerning vaccination inspired me to pursue my MPP," she said. “Plus, I missed academic spaces and being a student."

In addition to developing an appreciation for numbers and data analysis at Harris, Afzal says Harris also brought about a paradigm shift in her policy views. “I had literally never taken a stats class before, and yet I loved my Stats I class with Associate Professor Eyal Frank. My experience with policy had mostly been qualitative until then, and I hadn’t looked too closely at the numbers, studies and probabilities that shaped those policies. I had engaged with data analysis in my work, but the lack of a formal quant background meant it was easy to get lost in these conversations of confidence intervals and statistical significance. However, from the very first class, Professor Frank put things in perspective. He would explain complicated ideas in a way that allowed us to get the bigger picture. I appreciated how much these statistical studies and approaches influenced policy, and how important it was to engage with those and understand them in the policy space.”

Another moment she recalls was when she was attending Behavioral Science and Public Policy class, which immediately hooked her with its concept of using behavioral tools to influence policy changes.

Beyond the academic rigor, Afzal participated actively in clubs like Minorities in Public Policy (MiPPS) and served as the Finance Chair in Harris Student Government in her second year.

Talking about the toughest challenges she faced at Harris, Afzal said, “The first few months were extremely tough because it seemed like everyone was better prepared than me. It’s natural for impostor syndrome to kick in during something so unfamiliar, and navigating a new space while building meaningful relationships was also difficult. But I realized if I survived the first quarter of the Core Curriculum, I could survive anything else.”

Now, Afzal is a Government Innovation Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL). There, she supports state governments with their procurement processes for public services. “Most of the residents’ interactions with the government are typically done through contracted services, like fixing roads. Helping cities improve their procurement processes in turn helps the residents,” she said.

After her fellowship, Afzal looks forward to continuing working in the middle ground between research and implementation while helping cities and their governing bodies strategize better.