Menschel Senior Leadership Fellows
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.
Menschel Senior Leadership Fellows
The Menschel Senior Leadership Program provides a bridge from the world of decision-making to the world of academia. This program offers a unique opportunity for those who have recently served in high-level positions in government, multilateral institutions, nonprofit organizations, business, and journalism to spend time at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to share reflections on their own career and insights about leadership with the next generation of world leaders.
Menschel Fellows mentor students who aspire to similar roles and collaborate with renowned academic colleagues, exploring important issues pertaining to strategic decision-making and leadership development in public health.
Fall 2 2025 Fellows
Kate Walsh
Kate Walsh is a former hospital executive who has made equity in health care a centerpiece of her work. As secretary, she oversaw 11 agencies, two soldiers’ homes, the MassHealth system, and 23,000 employees whose work touched roughly one in three Massachusetts residents each day. The office also oversaw a wide range of state services, including child welfare, health benefits, veterans’ services, behavioral health, opioid response, and elder care.
Walsh previously served as CEO of the Boston Medical Center Health System, a safety-net hospital and academic medical center that provides care to underserved populations in the region. In 2021, the hospital launched the Health Equity Accelerator to examine inequities in health care, studying dozens of health conditions to identify disparate outcomes and devising strategies to eliminate those gaps. A Yale University graduate with a master’s degree in public health, Walsh has served on numerous boards and commissions.
She will teach a fall 2 course in the Health, Policy, and Management Department, tentatively called “Health Policy and Leadership.”
Rosine Sori-Coulibaly
Rosine Sori-Coulibaly has over 35 years of experience in sustainable development, poverty reduction, fiscal and budgetary reforms, gender equality, and women’s empowerment. She is currently the president of the Sahel and West Africa Club, which promotes regional policies to improve economic and social well-being, including food security.
As Burkina Faso’s minister of finance from 2016 to 2019, Sori-Coulibaly instituted gender-based budgeting to ensure funding for programs critical to women, including reproductive health, pre- and post-natal care, and free contraception. She also played a lead role in advancing her government’s social transformation agenda, which included major health systems reform and poverty reduction efforts. Previously, Sori-Coulibaly had a 20-year career at the United Nations, serving in various senior-level positions with a focus on political dialogue, national reconciliation, humanitarian assistance, and donor coordination. She holds advanced degrees in economics from the University of Dakar.
She will teach a course on Global Health Leadership in the Global Health and Population department.
Recent fellows
Roy Cooper
Roy Cooper, a Nash County native, earned his undergraduate and law degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill before practicing law in Rocky Mount, where he and his wife, Kristin, raised their three daughters. Inspired by his mother’s career as a public-school teacher, he championed education, served in the legislature from 1986, and later as Attorney General (2000–2016), reducing crime and protecting consumers.
Elected as North Carolina’s 75th Governor in 2016, Cooper expanded Medicaid, bringing healthcare to 630,000 residents, relieved $4 million in medical debt, created jobs, and strengthened public education. He remains committed to building a North Carolina that works for everyone.
He taught a course in the Department of Health Policy and Management called “Health Policy and Leadership.”
Marcia Fudge
Marcia Fudge, JD, served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Biden administration from March 2021 through March 2024. During her tenure, she led initiatives to increase housing supply, reduce homelessness, end discriminatory practices in the housing market, and ensure compliance with fair housing rules.
Before joining the Cabinet, Fudge served for 13 years as the U.S. representative for Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. She was known for working across political ideologies to address the needs of her district and for chairing the Congressional Black Caucus.
Fudge began her political career as the mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, where she addressed issues including abandoned property, predatory lending, and the foreclosure crisis, and brought new residential development to the city.
She will teach a Spring 2 course in the Department of Health Policy and Management tentatively called “Health Policy and Leadership.”
Dawn O’Connell
Dawn O’Connell served as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (2021–2025), leading the nation’s response to public health emergencies, including COVID-19, mpox, H5N1, natural disasters like Hurricane Helene and the Maui wildfire, and over 400 cybersecurity incidents. She previously directed the U.S. Office for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI) and held senior roles at HHS during the Obama-Biden Administration. O’Connell holds a BA from Vanderbilt and a JD from Tulane, and lives in Washington, DC, with her family
O’Connell will visited the School during the spring 2025 semester where she met with faculty, engaged with students during arranged events, and participated in a Harvard Chan Studio event on Feb. 12.
Past Fellows
- Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s 75th Governor (2016-2024)
- Marcia Fudge, JD, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2021-2024)
- Dawn O’Connell, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (2021–2025)
- Ashwin Vasan, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (2022–2024)
- Miro Weinberger, Mayor of Burlington, VT (2012-2024)
- Awa Marie Coll Seck, former senior minister to the president of Senegal and minister of health (2001-2003 & 2012-2017)
- Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021-2023)
- Lori Lightfoot, former mayor of Chicago
- Andrew Dreyfus, former president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
- Bill de Blasio, former mayor of New York City
- Kim Janey, former mayor of Boston
- Roman Macaya, former executive president of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund and former ambassador from Costa Rica to the United States
- Kelechi Ohiri, former special adviser to Nigeria’s minister of finance and two ministers of health and CEO of health care advisory firm HDSF
- Stephen Benjamin, former mayor of Columbia, SC
- Subramaniam Sathasivam, former minister of health of Malaysia
- Peter Shumlin, former governor of Vermont
- Jeffrey Sánchez, former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
- Jay Nixon, former governor of Missouri
- Joanne Kenen, executive healthcare editor, POLITICO
- Patricia García, former minister of health of Peru
- Jackie Jenkins-Scott, former president of Wheelock College and Dimock Community Health Center
- Ted Strickland, former governor of Ohio
- Steven Beshear, former governor of Kentucky
- Suraya Dalil, former minister of public health for Afghanistan
- Donna Shalala, former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services
- Somsak Chunharas, former deputy minister of health for Thailand
- Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency