Former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky To Headline 2024-25 Belfer Center Senior Fellows Cohort

Rochelle P. Walensky — who led the Center for Disease Control and Prevention during the Covid-19 pandemic — will headline the 2024-25 cohort of senior fellows at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Walneksy will be joined by Wendy R. Sherman, who served as the deputy secretary of state under U.S. President Joe Biden until July 2023 — the first woman in history to hold the position. The fellowship will mark a homecoming for Sherman, who previously served as the director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School.

The fall class of Belfer Center senior fellows will feature 12 other policymakers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. The cohort will include James C. McConville, the former chief of staff of the United States Army; Robert D. Blackwill, the former deputy national security advisor under President George W. Bush; and Daniel B. Poneman ’78, a former deputy secretary of energy.

Meghan L. O’Sullivan — the director of the Belfer Center — praised the fellows for their “fresh energy, enthusiasm, and a diversity of ideas” and said that the fellows would be “a tremendous resource not only for our students but also for faculty members engaged in policy-relevant research.”

“Our Senior Fellows are distinguished leaders with deep expertise in critical global issues and years of high-level experience in government, academia, and business,” she said, according to a press release.

The Belfer Center will also host over 50 more visiting scholars and research fellows who specialize in a range of fields, including cyber and nuclear security, emerging technologies, climate change, and the transition to clean energy.

"Since its founding 50 years ago, the Belfer Center has relied on a highly selective cohort of Research Fellows to further our mission of advancing rigorous scholarship and training future leaders,” O’Sullivan said.

Six of the non-senior fellows hosted by the Belfer Center this term will join the “Emerging Technology, Scientific Advancement, and Global Policy” program, a new program launched last week with the goal of fostering scholarship at the intersection of data and public policy.

The new program was announced as newly-minted HKS Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein — who developed a track record of applying technology to societal issues during his time at Stanford University — takes helm of the school.

The cohort of senior fellows also features several policymakers who specialize in technology, including Carme Artigas, the co-chair of the United Nations’ artificial intelligence advisory body; Ezinne E. Uzo-Okoro, the former assistant director for space policy at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy; and David Nusbaum, a nuclear engineering expert at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.

“I look forward to the year ahead, confident that our fellows and visiting scholars will foster a dynamic exchange of ideas and contribute meaningfully to addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges,” O’Sullivan said.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.