Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will temporarily join Harvard University later this year. The university said that she has been appointed to dual fellowships at Harvard Kennedy School and to a concurrent fellowship at the Berkman Klein Center.
In January, Ardern announced her decision to step down, saying she had “no more in the tank” to lead the country. A global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, Ardern led her country through a devastating mass shooting. She will serve as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and a Hauser Leader in the Harvard Kennedy School’ Center for Public Leadership beginning this fall.
Ardern, who was just 37 when she became prime minister in 2017, said she sees the Harvard opportunity as a chance not only to share her experience with others, but also to learn. “As leaders, there’s often very little time for reflection, but reflection is critical if we are to properly support the next generation of leaders,” she said.
Ardern will also do a stint as the first tech governance leadership fellow at the school’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. The center had partnered with New Zealand to confront violent extremism online after a white supremacist gunman shot 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch in 2019, Ardern said. The gunman live-streamed the slaughter for 17 minutes on Facebook before the video was taken down.
