Kimberlyn Rachael Leary

Biography

Dr. Kimberlyn Leary is the Emma Bloomberg Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at the Harvard Kennedy School and has served as the Executive Vice President at the Urban Institute and is a Senior Advisor at New America. She was a consulting advisor to the Gates Foundation and previously served as an advisor to the National Math and Science Initiative. She is also faculty affiliate at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, as well as at the Center for Public Leadership the Women and Public Policy Program and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School.

Dr. Leary also holds academic appointments as an associate professor at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and has held two roles in federal service: in the Obama White House as an advisor to the Council on Women and Girls, as a senior advisor to the Biden White House Domestic Policy Council, and as a fellow in the Office of Management and Budget.

Dr. Leary holds an AB in Psychology from Amherst College, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan, and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University. She also trained as a psychoanalyst at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. She has held fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In April of 2024, she was a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center resident.

Dr. Leary is also a member of the Board of Trustees at the Emma Willard School and the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. She currently serves as a Governor of the Folger Shakespeare Library and a Community Advisory Board Member at TD Bank. 

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