Courses
I currently teach at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Previous courses at the University of California, Berkeley include:
Public Management and Policy Implementation
2017, 2019, 2020
This course introduces graduate students to the central elements of public management and policy implementation. We focus on three key challenges that public managers face: managing program performance; managing people; and managing public sector reform. Using both academic literature case studies, and a series of guest lectures from innovative practitioners, the course teaches students how to get things done in government, and how data and evidence can be used to support public sector innovation.
Behavioral Science for Public Policy
2018, 2019, 2021
Behavioral science uses findings from psychology, economics and other fields to better understand how people actually behave, as opposed to how we would like them to behave. Many of these insights carry significant implications for how to design policies in education, health, energy, taxation, criminal justice, and more. In this course we review how government agencies and other policymaking institutions have tried to use behavioral insights to improve policy; what have been the successes and failures; what are the ethical considerations in using behavioral science; and what new ideas are on the horizon.
Social Science for the Public Good
2021
In this course, we focus on the “nuts and bolts” of doing collaborative research, that answers questions of both theoretical and substantive importance. Examples of the topics we will discuss include: finding an implementation partner and negotiating a relationship, managing data use agreements and working with messy data, designing and implementing a field experiment, ethics and equity in collaborative research, and disseminating results to partners, academics, policymakers, and the general public. This course is designed for PhD students (and MPPs/MPAs interested in pursuing PhDs) who have an interest in conducting collaborative research with an agency, organization, or firm.
Introduction to Policy Analysis
2020
The goal of this class is for MPP students to become skilled in applying the tools of public policy analysis to real-world problems in a professional environment. The centerpiece of the course is a semester-long project in which small teams of students analyze problems and provide recommendations for actual clients. Over the course of the semester, each team produces a final presentation and a substantial written report for their client. In addition, this course will provide students with professional development skills including: scoping a policy problem, using data for clients, professional writing, client interactions and presentations.