The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL), based in the School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government, supports state and local governments across the country in designing and implementing solutions to pressing social problems.
Policy analysts and community organizers, management consultants and social workers — GPL team members put their skills to work helping governments tackle their hardest problems. Whether working to solve chronic homelessness, connect nurses and low-income mothers, or break the cycle of incarceration, GPL team members support innovative government leaders in creating solutions to serious social challenges and improving the way government works.
Fellows work directly with state and local governments and are the backbone of the Lab’s model for providing high-quality pro bono technical assistance to governments. Fellows typically come to the GPL within a few years of completing a graduate degree in public policy, public administration, business administration, law, or related fields. Throughout the course of their fellowship, Fellows guide significant performance improvement projects forward, usually based on-site in the government, and receive training in skills including data analysis and project management. Previous fellows have led projects to reform city procurement, expand re-entry services to individuals released on parole, and improve the delivery of services provided to families interacting with the child welfare system.
