MWRD's Debra Shore Goes to Harvard

Deb Shore, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District in the Chicagoland region, just completed Harvard's Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program in Cambridge last month. She talks about her experience there in the video (length: 8:54).

The Harvard program matches elected officials with senior-level executives from state, county and local government and executives working with state and local governments. Students from all over the world participate in the program. The program "offers participants a rare opportunity to learn from the nation’s top educators, researchers, and practitioners; to share experiences and network with peers from the U.S. and international governments; and to become part of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government community – all in a short amount of time. For more than twenty-five years, participants from all over the world have shared in this fine learning experience." (from the brochure [PDF] )

The program's website puts Shore's experience in context:

Today’s elected and appointed Senior Executives in state and local government are under more pressure than ever to take on increasingly complex problems with fewer resources and a greater degree of public scrutiny. In order to get people in organizations and communities to face these difficult challenges, public officials must strengthen their ability to exercise effective leadership in rapidly changing political and social environments, hone their diagnostic skills about complicated social and group dynamics, and find the confidence to speak about the difficult realities of economics, race, resources and politics that we all face.

The Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government provides experiences for participants both inside and outside the classroom to ensure that public officials are equipped on a daily basis to manage and lead results-driven government agencies and non-profit organizations...

This three-week program is designed specifically to challenge assumptions about how you can exercise leadership in the public sector. During the course of this program, you will learn strategies for establishing meaningful, attainable organizational objectives. You will also investigate the process of developing and evaluating policy alternatives and consider your options for organizing and deploying resources to achieve these objectives.

One of the most frequently cited problems of public officials is how to create and engage in public discourse about difficult subjects – religion, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation. Using our classroom as a laboratory, you will be in an environment where you are encouraged to raise difficult issues, and practice how you create and maintain a conversation that leads to change.

It's a pretty intense schedule -- with case studies in political management, public value and policy analysis -- as the website made clear:

SAMPLE DAILY SCHEDULE
7:00 am – 8:00 am Breakfast
8:00 am – 9:00 am Study groups meet to discuss case material and assigned study questions
9:00 am – 10: 30 am Case Discussion
10:30 am – 11: 00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Case Discussion
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch with guest speaker
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Case Discussion
3:30 pm – 6:00 pm Individual study and class preparation
6:00 pm – 8: 00 pm Dinner

Note: Because of the intensive nature of our programs, participants are asked to immerse themselves completely in the program curriculum and daily events. Free time at night is used to prepare for the next day’s sessions and to mingle informally with classmates.

A sample schedule for the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program can also be viewed here [PDF]. Pretty ambitious. Congratulations, Deb, for completing this rigorous and undoubtedly valuable program!

You can sign up for Deb's periodic emails on her work with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District here.