Menschel Senior Leadership Fellowship
The Menschel Senior Leadership Fellowship brings individuals who have recently served in high-level jobs in government, multilateral institutions, nonprofits, or business to the Harvard Chan School campus to teach and mentor students for an eight-week semester and partake in academic life at Harvard.
For Students
As resources to the Harvard community, Menschel Senior Leadership Fellows spend time teaching and mentoring students. They offer guidance and personal stories exploring leadership challenges in public health, such as:
- Making difficult decisions
- Overcoming obstacles
- Taking risks
- Building teams
- Listening to advice
- Fostering resiliency
- Communicating effectively
- Engaging stakeholders
- Building trust
- Enabling change
Office Hours
Kate Walsh and Rosine Coulibaly will be holding office hours this Fall 2, open to all Harvard students. These sessions offer a unique opportunity to engage in one-on-one conversations with two nationally recognized leaders in health policy, governance, and public service.
Courses
Each Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow generally teaches an eight-week course at the Harvard Chan School. Each course is unique and reflects the individual career and leadership of the Fellow in residence for that term. Courses address a wide variety of leadership challenges in areas such as politics and public health, health equity, policy implementation, climate change, poverty, access to healthcare, community health, health systems, and more.
Eligibility to enroll: Harvard Chan students are given first priority for seats, but the courses are open to all Harvard University students who cross-register through the Harvard University Course Catalog. Undergraduates must first get approval from their degree program.
Student Liaisons
Harvard Chan students may apply to serve as student liaisons for Menschel Senior Leadership Fellows. Liaisons work on a volunteer basis to help integrate Fellows into the fabric of the Harvard community by introducing them to the community’s people, culture, and events.
About
Menschel Senior Leadership Fellows are in residence on campus for approximately 9 weeks; and in cases of short-term fellows, only 1-2 weeks. Given the abundance of resources at Harvard, they can hardly expect to see and do it all. However, student liaisons can greatly enrich a Menschel Fellow’s experience by sharing with them their own network and knowledge., including theiir connections to student groups, events, faculty, and other campus going-ons.
Seeing Harvard through a student’s perspective provides each Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow with a fuller sample of the Harvard community. In return, Student Liaisons build unique relationships with esteemed global leaders of public heath decision-making.
Our Fellows for Fall 2 term are Kate Walsh, Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Rosine Coulibaly, Minister of Economy and Finance of Burkina Faso and later as Minister of Foreign Affairs. They both will serve a Senior Leadership Fellows at Harvard Chan from October 27 – December 19, 2025.
Application Process
- The application and selection process for Student Liaisons generally takes place weeks prior to the arrival of a Senior Leadership Fellow. Note: The process may be delayed for positions pertaining to Fellows in the Fall 1 term, since a Fellow for that term will arrive prior to most students returning to campus.
- A separate application process for Student Liaisons will be held for each incoming Senior Leadership Fellow.
- Open positions and links to online applications will be posted on this page.
- Program staff will review all applications, meet with select candidates, and notify those chosen for positions.
Role
- Contribute ideas of activities, meetings, and events that may be of interest to the Senior Leadership Fellow.
- Meet regularly with the rest of the Student Liaison team and the Senior Leadership Fellow.
- Meet as needed with the Senior Leadership Fellows Program (SLFP) staff for support and collaboration.
Student testimonials
Being a part of the student liaison program really complimented my first semester at Harvard Chan. Through the program, I was able to connect with Mayor Kim Janey and learn more about the amazing work she’s done for the city and as a leader in health equity. It felt like a truly integrated experience, doing my public health coursework as well as being her student liaison, and I am grateful to have had this opportunity here at Harvard.
Yvette Cho, MPH ’22, student liaison for Kim Janey, Menschel Fellow ’23
Serving as a student liaison to Mayor de Blasio was a phenomenal experience. I deeply enjoyed co-facilitating small group dialogues on topics like poetry and public opinion, allowing Harvard Chan students, myself included, to learn creatively in conversation with the mayor. The student liaison program is a rare opportunity to engage with people who have served in high-level positions and gain unusual insights into what leadership may require.
Amal Cheema, MPH ’23, student liaison for Bill de Blasio, Menschel Fellow ’23