Harvard Graduate School of Education Student Receives 2025 Rappaport Public Policy Fellowship

Master's student Nancy Yee has been selected as a 2025 Rappaport Public Policy Fellow by the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University. Twenty graduate students will spend the summer working with state and municipal agencies across Greater Boston on policy initiatives that improve service delivery and address the pressing needs of vulnerable populations. 

Yee, a student in the Online Master's in Education Leadership Program, will work at the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance on projects related to early education and care policy and support the implementation of immediate-term recommendations from the Community & Executive Branch Engagement on Early Education and Care (EEC), while fostering inter-agency collaboration to identify additional opportunities for transformational change in the field. Her work will focus on advancing an EEC system that is affordable and accessible for families, values and fairly compensates educators, and helps providers build sustainable businesses that contribute to long-term stability across Massachusetts.

Now in its 25th year, the Rappaport Public Policy Fellowship provides a unique opportunity for students to gain real-world experience in policymaking while contributing to meaningful public impact. Fellows will tackle critical issues in areas such as immigration, public health, education, housing, and transportation. 

“This program gives graduate students a front-row seat to the policymaking process,” said Kathryn Carlson, executive director of the Rappaport Institute. “They leave with deeper knowledge, stronger networks, and a long-term commitment to public service — many go on to serve in leadership roles across the region.” 

The fellowship is funded and administered by the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, whose mission is to strengthen governance in Greater Boston and Massachusetts by fostering connections among scholars, students, public officials, and civic leaders. Fellows are selected through a competitive process, with this year’s cohort chosen from nearly 200 applicants, and represent ten schools across eight universities. 

Each fellow receives a generous stipend and is matched with a government host agency for a 10-week summer placement. In addition to their full-time work, fellows participate in weekly seminars and professional development sessions that offer broader insight into regional policy challenges. Many of these gatherings include law students from the complementary Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy Fellowship at Boston College Law School. 

Highlights of the 2025 Fellows’ Work: 

• Advancing maternal health equity through community-engaged grant development at the Boston Public Health Commission. 
• Designing a bridge-to-college program to support high school seniors with no college plans at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education. 
• Analyzing Medicaid data to understand the health impacts of extreme heat and identify vulnerable populations for MassHealth. 
• Streamlining Boston’s permitting processes into a centralized, user-friendly system through digital innovation. 
• Exploring Medicaid drug pricing strategies for high-cost therapies and assessing applicability in Massachusetts. 
• Building collaboration across Massachusetts’ AI ecosystem by mapping partnerships between government, academia, and industry.  
• Developing tools to strengthen climate resilience and streamline state grant processes through the Municipal Vulnerability Program.

The full list of fellows and their placements is included below and can also be found at the Rappaport Institute website.

In addition to working full-time for their host agencies, the fellows will participate in weekly seminars and meet-ups to learn more about key issues in the region and discuss progress on their projects. At many of these sessions, they will be joined by 12 law students who are working in similar fellowships via a program run by the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Boston College Law School.

Both Harvard’s Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and Boston College's Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy are funded by the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Charitable Foundation, which supports the development emerging leaders in Greater Boston.