Jorrit de Jong
Director, Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University
Faculty Co-Chair, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
Emma Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School
Dr. Jorrit de Jong is Director of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, and Faculty Co-Chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a joint program of Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, funded by and executed in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies. It is the world’s most comprehensive effort to advance effective problem-solving and innovation in cities through executive education, research, curriculum development, and field work. The mayors and senior leaders of more than 200 cities have participated in the program to date.
As the Emma Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, Dr. de Jong’s 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 HKS and around the world.
Before coming to Harvard, Jorrit co-founded the Kafka Brigade, a social enterprise in Europe that helps governments diagnose and remedy bureaucratic dysfunction. Before that, he was director of the Center for Government Studies at Leiden University and founding co-director of a consulting firm for the public sector in Amsterdam.
In 2014, Jorrit launched the Innovation Field Lab, an experiential learning, executive education, and action research project working with 15 cities in Massachusetts and New York to help them leverage data, community engagement and innovation to revitalize distressed and underinvested neighborhoods. He also founded the Organized Crime Lab and Human Trafficking Field Lab, facilitating diverse, multidisciplinary crimefighting teams in collaborative innovation work. He has been an advisor on public sector reform to cities, states/provinces, national governments, and international organizations, including the United Nations and the OECD.
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). Jorrit has written over 50 teaching cases and designed numerous simulation exercises on strategic leadership, collaborative governance, and public sector innovation.
His research has been published in various academic journals, including Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, International Journal of Public Administration, and the Journal of Public Health Management and Policy.
