Alumni also include cabinet officials, military leaders, heads of central banks, and legislators.

[6] The School drew its initial faculty from Harvard's existing government and economics departments, and welcomed its first students in 1937.

In 1966, three years following the assassination of U.S. President and 1940 Harvard College alumnus John F. Kennedy, the school was renamed in his honor.

[nb 1] In 1966, concurrent with the school's renaming,[8] the Harvard Institute of Politics was created with Neustadt as its founding director.

[14][15] From 2004 to 2015, Harvard Kennedy School's dean was David T. Ellwood, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official in the Clinton administration.

[19][20] Jeremy was a political scientist at Stanford University who previously served as chief of staff to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Harvard Kennedy School offers four master's degree programs.

Members of the mid-career MPA class also include Mason Fellows, who are public and private executives from developing countries.

[24] Abroad, Harvard Kennedy School offers a dual degree with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

[40] Harvard Kennedy School is home to 14 centers, including:[41][15] The majority of centers offer research and academic fellowships through which fellows can engage in research projects, lead study groups into specific topics and share their experiences with industry and government with the student body.

Under Dean Elmendorf, the school has tried to focus its engagement across the political spectrum, which has caused controversy at times.

[57][58] It then publicly rescinded the offer on September 15, 2017, after CIA director Mike Pompeo canceled a speaking engagement at Harvard and sent a letter condemning the university for awarding the fellowship.

The Kennedy School eventually rescinded the invitation to Roth because Human Rights Watch's 2021 investigation of Israel's treatment of Palestinians concluded that it met the threshold for the "crime of apartheid".

[62] After condemnation by faculty, students, the American Civil Liberties Union and others, the dean of the school reversed this decision.

[64] Harvard Kennedy School has over 63,000 alumni, many of whom have gone on to notable careers around the world in government, business, public policy, and other fields.

Its alumni include 20 heads of state and dozens of leaders of government department and agencies, non-profit public policy organizations, the military, thought leadership and advocacy, academia, and other fields:[2]