Jorrit de Jong

As Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a joint program of Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Dr. Jorrit de Jong is responsible for Executive Education programs for Mayors and their Senior Leadership teams in 240 cities worldwide. He also oversees the research agenda, the curricular materials development portfolio and a comprehensive program of ongoing field support to cities.

Jorrit is a Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and Academic Director of the Innovations in Government Program at the School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research and teaching focus on the challenges of making the public sector more effective, efficient, equitable and responsive to social needs. A specialist in experiential learning, Jorrit has taught strategic management and public problem-solving in degree and executive education programs at Harvard and around the world.

In 2014, Jorrit launched the Innovation Field Lab, an experiential learning and outreach project sponsored by the Ash Center that connects HKS students with five cities in Massachusetts through real problem-solving efforts. He also founded the Organized Crime Field Lab in the Netherlands, a program that helps prosecutors, police, city officials and financial intelligence professionals develop cross-boundary crime-fighting innovations.

Jorrit holds a PhD in Public Policy and Management (VU Amsterdam), a Master in Philosophy (Leiden) and a Master in Public Administration (Leiden). He has written extensively, including the books The State of Access: Success and Failure of Democracies to Create Equal Opportunities (Brookings 2008, co-edited); Agents of Change: Strategy and Tactics for Social Innovation (Brookings 2012, co-authored); and Dealing with Dysfunction: Innovative Problem Solving in the Public Sector (Brookings, 2016).