Office of the Dean
“Our mission here at Harvard Chan School is simple, but profound: We aim to build a world where everyone can thrive.”
— Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, Dean of the Faculty
677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
Building capacity for constructive engagement
To reinforce academic excellence, strengthen public health leadership skills, and nurture a vibrant pluralism in our community, Dean Baccarelli has called for multi-layered efforts to build capacity for constructive dialogue at Harvard Chan School. This page provides updates as well as resources assembled as part of the Harvard Chan LEADs (Learn & Engage Across Differences) initiative.
Resources to build your skills
All members of the Harvard Chan Community are encouraged to explore a new online module, developed by faculty at Harvard Kennedy School, offering training in how to hold constructive conversations across divides. Through videos, animations, and short exercises, it walks you through simple, evidence-based principles for engaging effectively with people who may hold radically different views. You can also practice debating hot-button issues with an AI chatbot trained to evaluate your strategies and give scientifically sound feedback.
We’ve collected relevant training modules, videos, and articles exploring the principles of constructive engagement in this Intranet site for Harvard Key holders. Explore here.
Watch a fireside chat with Katelyn Jetelina, founder of the popular newsletter “Your Local Epidemiologist.” She shares practical tips for cutting through misinformation and communicating effectively with people from a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints. View the YouTube recording here.
In an era of deep political polarization, how can we build bipartisan support for public health? Nir Menachemi, dean of the Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University, shared lessons from his experience forging successful partnerships with policymakers in Florida, Alabama, and Indiana to increase investment in public health. Watch the recording here.
Read about how academic freedom applies to members of the School community.
Read our community guidelines for free expression as well as Harvard’s Campus Use Rules.
Reinforcing the importance of constructive engagement
The School has taken many steps to strengthen our commitment to pluralism, open inquiry, and thoughtful dialogue across difference. These include:
- Launching the Office for Community and Belonging to elevate pluralism as a central feature of our School and ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
- Adding an application essay asking prospective students to reflect on a time when they changed their mind about a public health issue after a conversation, class, or experience.
- Adding questions to the course evaluation asking whether the teaching team fostered respectful dialogue, encouraged diverse perspectives, and made students feel comfortable expressing their opinions on controversial topics. Instructors who need support in these or any other areas receive coaching.
- Creating a Working Group on Constructive Engagement with wide representation including students, trainees, staff, and faculty to develop recommendations for building skills and improving the climate for open inquiry in classrooms, labs, offices, and extra-curricular activities. The Working Group shared recommendations in Fall of 2025 and is putting them forward for discussion across the community.
- Developing the Harvard Chan Principles of Citizenship to set out foundational expectations for how every member of our community interacts with one another, reflecting our shared commitment to building a culture where everyone can thrive.
- Launching the Harvard Chan Values in Action Awards, which annually honor a student, a staff member, and an academic appointee who embody our core values, including a commitment to respectful dialogue across differences.
- Offering training for students, staff, and faculty on active listening, candid conversations, and facilitating discussion on hot-button issues in the classroom, among other relevant topics.
- Holding peer teaching workshops for instructors on topics including creating a positive learning culture and facilitating robust and constructive classroom conversations.
- Organizing trainings on recognizing and combating antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias for students, staff, and faculty.
- Identifying ways to improve awareness of the School’s bias reporting policies and Harvard’s anonymous reporting hotline.