2002 Rappaport Public Policy Interns with Jerry and Phyllis Rappaport and Rappaport Institute staff.

In 2002, the Rappaport Institute increased the total number of internships to twelve. The 2002 class of interns represented five different schools including the Kennedy School of Government, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Boston University School of Management, Suffolk's Sawyer School of Management, and MIT. Our fellows worked in finance, human services, environment, education and urban planning and development. 2002 interns worked on the municipal level in Brookline, Boston and Somerville as well as the state level.

Jeff Adamson
Graduate Degree: Harvard, Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate Degree: University of Louisville
Areas of Interest: Municipal governance, health insurance and labor management
Mentor: Carl Case, Wellesley College
Public Policy Placement: Office of the Town Administrator, Town of Belmont
Project Description: Jeff assisted in the cost analysis of the early retirement incentive program and in the bargaining for a change in prescription drug benefits. He also analyzed health insurance, labor management, public information, general service delivery, and municipal finance issues.
Current Whereabouts: Jeff is currently attending law school in Kentucky.

Charity Bell
Graduate Degree: Harvard, Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate Degree: New England Conservancy of Music
Areas of Interest: Social Services and children in need
Mentor: Patricia McGovern, Vice President of CareGroup at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Public Policy Placement: Massachusetts Department of Social Services

Project Description: Charity reviewed current availability of dental care for Department of Social Service foster/pre-adoptive children and devised plan to encourage greater participation in the MassHealth Dental plan by Dentists. Charity also developed survey for foster parents regarding the daily reimbursement rate for foster care, which assessed the cost of providing care for foster children. Finally in conjunction with the 5 Boston Area Offices, she developed and implemented yearlong foster parent recruitment plan.

Current Whereabouts: Charity is now Director of two programs focused on support, training, advocacy and resource management for families raising children who have experience abuse/neglect at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Amy Dain
Graduate Degree: Harvard, Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate Degree: Wesleyan University
Areas of Interest: Environmental policy
Mentor: Vivian Li, Executive director of the Boston Harbor Association
Public Policy Placement: Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs
Project Description: Amy created a protocol for conducting an annual greenhouse gas inventory for state agencies, researched sustainability indicators, wrote a memo on outdoor lighting policy, and contributed to a state report on dioxin. She also helped put together a fact sheet on sustainable design, researched all sorts of sustainability factoids, and searched for many fun things on the web.

Current Whereabouts: Amy Dain is now heading up a project co-sponsored by the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research studying housing regulations and creating an on-line database. This comprehensive Internet database will provide the information necessary to understand regulatory issues in every city and town in Massachusetts. By making the regulatory regime for housing “transparent” – clear and visible to all – opinion leaders and policy makers will have the tools they need to understand and act.

Bram Elias
Graduate Degree: Harvard, Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate Degree: University of Michigan
Areas of Interest: Economic and racial integration
Mentor: Tom Keane, Boston Herald columnist
Public Policy Placement: Massachusetts Water Resources Authority

Project Description: Bram was asked to obtain and summarize water and/or wastewater master planning documents from "peer" (to MWRA) utilities throughout the U.S. Besides reviewing and summarizing each plan, he was also asked to make judgments about the applicability of different approaches for MWRA’s purposes and to identify "Best Practices" for plan development. He also followed the ongoing regulatory and public participation process for development of combined sewer overflow control plans for the South Boston beaches. Bram currently resides in California.

Monica Frattaroli
Graduate Degree: Boston University, School of Management
Undergraduate Degree: College of the Holy Cross
Areas of Interest: Education reform
Mentor: Jerry Rappaport, Chairman of the Jerome Lyle Rappaport Charitable Foundation
Public Policy Placement: Commissioner's Office of the Massachusetts Department of Education
Project Description: Monica developed a seminar for school administrators to address leadership issues.

Lisa Greenfield
Graduate Degree: Harvard, Graduate School of Design
Undergraduate Degree: Brandeis University
Areas of Interest: Urban Planning
Mentor: Marcia Lamb, Co-director of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
Public Policy Placement: Boston Redevelopment Authority
Project Description: Lisa worked on several projects under the supervision of the Chief Planner at the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Lisa Lattu
Graduate Degree: Harvard, Graduate School of Design
Undergraduate Degree: Texas A&M
Areas of Interest: Neighborhood Revitalization
Mentor: David Ellis, former president of Museum of Science
Public Policy Placement: Boston Redevelopment Authority
Project Description: Lisa worked on several projects under the supervision of the Deputy Director for Planning and Zoning at the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Current Whereabouts: She is one of two Design Planners with the Design Center Division of the Community & Economic Development Department for the City of Davenport, Iowa. She was hired to create a Design Center for the City, which is an experimental set-up where the staff is essentially in-house consultants. Instead of paying a consulting firm to prepare the City's plans and designs and blurring the line between public priorities and private opportunities, the consultants are part of the city-dedicated to the project without the daily hassle of city operations.

Terese Novak
Graduate Degree: Boston University, School of Management
Undergraduate Degree: Smith College
Areas of Interest: Social injustice and health policies
Mentor: Ira Jackson, Consultant
Public Policy Placement: Office of Intergovernmental Relations, City of Boston
Project Description and Rappaport Review Article: Terese completed program development, research & writing of federal HHS grant for Early Learning Opportunities submitted by a collaboration of city/community early care providers. She completed a welfare/TANF research paper on Boston caseload demographics, drafting of TANF resolution and talking points for US Conference of Mayors meeting. She also created a PowerPoint presentation for group of private family funders on needs & challenges in the early care & education system in Boston. Finally, she was a grant reviewer for two city review panels: Safe Neighborhood Youth Fund & Child Care Quality Improvement Fund.

Larisa Ortiz
Graduate Degree: MIT, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Undergraduate Degree: Wesleyan University
Areas of Interest: Rehabilitation of buildings
Mentor: Alex Krieger, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Public Policy Placement: Boston Redevelopment Authority
Project Description and Rappaport Review Article: Larisa’s fellowship included assisting project managers with any and all tasks related to their work, ranging from writing RFP’s to assisting in the review of proposals. She also worked closely with Bruce Ehrlich, Senior Financial Analyst on a number of marketing and feasibility analyses. She focused primarily on projects that included a strong adaptive reuse component. Her specific projects include: Marketing and Feasibility Analyses, RFPs for the Bates School, research for a preservation grant for the Charlestown Navy Yard, participation on a Blue Ribbon Panel for BRA foundation partnerships and requests.

Current Whereabouts: Larisa is currently a Project Manager for Jonathan Rose Companies in New York. The Jonathan Rose Companies try to repair the fabric of cities, towns and villages, while preserving the land around them. Through planning and developing diverse, mixed-use, transit-accessible, mixed-income communities or components focused on nodes of transportation, they develop plans to preserve surrounding farms and open spaces. The result is equitable, and supports the cultural, environmental and biological health of the bioregions they work in.

Sarah Potter
Graduate Degree: Suffolk University, Department of Political Science
Undergraduate Degree: Smith College
Areas of Interest: Social policy for families and children
Mentor: Susan Tracy, The Strategy Group
Public Policy Placement: Executive Office of Health and Human Services
Project Description: Sarah worked for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services on a report on Children's Mental Health in the Commonwealth, a resource guide for mental health services, and a review of 1-2 DOE funded pilot projects working with children impacted by trauma within the school environment.

Allen Smith
Graduate Degree: Harvard, Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate Degree: University of Illinois
Areas of Interest: Education policy
Mentor: Charles Baker, CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Center
Public Policy Placement: Boston Public Schools
Project Description and Rappaport Review Reseach Notes: Al worked for the Office of Curriculum and and Instructional Practices of the Boston Public Schools. He created Best Practices Journals to accompany Boston Public Schools’ (BPS’s) Bridging the Gap initiative, a training series for out-of-school time professionals. The Journals contained the information disseminated at the trainings. Al collected this information and organized it into a user-friendly format. Whenever necessary, he communicated with the trainers to get additional information. In addition, Al worked at one of our summer programs as a basketball coach. Al also helped out in all other areas of the BPS after school work.

Current Whereabouts: Al is currently working as Education Coordinator for the Boston Area Health Education Center (BAHEC) at the Boston Medical Center. BAHEC is a program of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). Within the Commission, BAHEC is an integral part of the Family, Adolescent, and Child Health Bureau. Some of the programs the BAHEC offers includes a Teen Health Report; Choose Not Abuse Curriculum; OssieMore: Disease Detective E-Learning Course; PRIDE Theater Arts Group; How Was I to Know: Teen Suicide PSA; "Let's Start Talking" : STD Prevention PSA; and One Paycheck Away; a photojournalism project on homelessness.

Christopher Thomaskutty
Graduate Degree: Harvard, Kennedy School of Government
Undergraduate Degree: Birmingham-Southern College
Areas of Interest: Municipal governance
Mentor: Ben Taylor
Public Policy Placement: Financial Office, City of Somerville
Project Description: Christopher worked for the Chief Financial Officer of the City of Somerville. He researched the feasibility of adapting Baltimore's CitiStat program in the City of Somerville. He also drafted the SomerStat program.

Current Whereabouts: Chris is currently working in Baltimore, Maryland on the City of Baltimore CitiStat program.