PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown was recently announced as a spring 2023 visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.
The institute will be welcoming eight fellows this semester. According to a press release from the IOP, the group has a wide range of experience in the fields including politics, journalism and global affairs.
In the institute’s biography for the former governor, Brown received acclaim for fighting for racial justice, passing the U.S.’s first automatic voter registration law, ensuring that 95% of Oregonians had access to health care and more. IOP added that Brown’s tenure as governor made the Beaver State a “safer, stronger, and a more inclusive place to live.”
During her time in Cambridge, Mass., Brown will interact with Harvard students and faculty through several discussions, events and programs that center government and politics.
Brown is one of two visiting fellows participating in the spring 2023 cohort. The remaining six individuals are resident fellows, including Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler who represented Washington’s third congressional district from 2011 to 2022 before conceding to current Rep. Joe Kent.
“When asked to help lead curious and passionate minds in candid conversations about the state of American politics, I said count me in!” Herrera Beutler said. “Today we desperately need transformational leaders to meet our nation’s challenges head-on and there is no better place to have these deliberative discussions than at Harvard’s IOP, where tomorrow’s leaders are preparing to take their place in history.”
As a resident fellow, Herrera Beutler will live on the Harvard campus while scheduling cohort meetings, offering regular office hours and hosting an eight-week study group for students.