Professor de Blasio: Ex-Mayor Heading to Harvard

De Blasio will teach classes on leadership and public service at Harvard’s public health school, and participate in events and programming at its school of government.

AP/Brittainy Newman, file
Mayor de Blasio at Central Park on November 14, 2021. AP/Brittainy Newman, file

Mayor de Blasio is headed to Harvard this fall as a teaching fellow at the university’s schools of government and public health.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat who served as mayor from from 2014 to 2021, will take part in “a variety of discussions, events, and programming” at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School and will teach classes on leadership and public service at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the schools said in separate announcements Wednesday.

The former acting mayor of Boston, Kim Janey, will also serve as a fellow at the public health school.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mayor de Blasio and Mayor Janey to campus as Menschel Senior Leadership Fellows,” Dean Michelle A. Williams said.

Ms. Williams said both officials grappled with public health crises including COVID-19, homelessness and the opioid epidemic.

“Their insights and their mentorship will be tremendously helpful to students who aspire to public office, as well as to those who are looking to lead in other sectors,” she said.

At the Institute of Politics, Mr. de Blasio will be joined by other fellows including a former Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven.

The interim director of the institute, Setti Warren, said Mr. de Blasio’s “decades of experience in local government, federal agencies, national campaigns, and running the largest city in the country will provide invaluable insight to our students and the Harvard community.”

Mr. de Blasio, who grew up in Massachusetts and is a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, was prevented by term limits from seeking a third four-year term as mayor.

After an unsuccessful campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. de Blasio flirted this year with running for governor of New York and later mounted a brief run for a congressional district that includes his Brooklyn home. 

A former federal prosecutor and Trump impeachment counsel, Daniel Goldman, secured the Democratic nomination for that seat in a primary Tuesday.


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