By Danielle Mulligan Photos by Ting Wei Li
Shin-pei Tsay (left) and Katharine Lusk (right) sharing their insights for BU researchers to connect with City Hall.
On December 3rd, the Initiative on Cities (IOC) hosted the inaugural BU City Hall Day, building on the success of three cohorts of the IOC’s Public Impact Scholars (PIS) program. The goal of this event was to build relationships between BU faculty and City Hall leaders to bridge the gap between research and municipal policymaking. Open to graduates of the PIS program and recent IOC seed grant awardees, a group of 13 researchers from 12 departments and units and six schools joined the program.
City Councilor Sharon Durkan
Participants were welcomed to City Hall by the IOC’s Founding Executive Director and former Co-Director, Katharine Lusk, who now serves as the Executive Director of the City’s Planning Advisory Council, and Shin-pei Tsay, the City’s Chief Research and Data Officer, both of whom partnered with the IOC to put together this event. Shin-pei and Katharine spoke about how research happens within City Hall and best practices for researchers seeking to connect their research with municipal policymakers. The group was then joined by City Councilor Sharon Durkan, who spoke to her priorities and how the Council partners with researchers. One participant shared that hearing from these leaders across City Hall was “very helpful for thinking about how to formulate research questions.”
As part of our commitment to a mutually beneficial exchange of expertise, the next session offered three faculty members an opportunity to present their research to an audience of over 60 staff members from across City Hall. This panel of three lightning talks featured three BU experts, Katherine Levine Einstein, Deborah Carr, and Gregory Wellenius, each speaking to three timely policy topics: Overcoming Barriers to Building, Designing Cities for Rising Temperatures, and Building Multigenerational Cities. Our collaborators at the City have shared with us that they have received multiple requests to host sessions like this again, noting that “there’s something awesome about researchers wanting to build relationships with City Hall at City Hall that everyone appreciated.”
Lightning talks panelists Katherine Levine Einstein (left), Deborah Carr (center), and Gregory Wellenius (right) fielding questions from City Hall employees.
Following this presentation, participants held individual meetings with leaders across City Hall – from elected officials to commissioners to department heads – to share details about their research agenda and hear about the City’s priorities. Each of the 10 meetings was set up in advance to match participants with policy leaders whose work could inform or be informed by the researchers’ area of expertise. Participants prepared and shared one-page profiles highlighting their research priorities and potential collaboration opportunities. One participant shared, “I left the day very energized that we have a lot to offer City staff and leaders and that they are equally eager to work with us.” The day concluded with a visit to the City Council chambers to listen in on the weekly City Council meeting, and a debrief with Ken Ryan, BU’s Assistant Vice President of Government and Community Affairs.
Attendees have already had successful follow-ups with contacts they made at City Hall. One attendee has applied for a grant based on a city priority she learned about during a visit and is starting a second project with another contact. Another shared, “The Councilor offered to connect me with relevant leaders who could help me get my research project off the ground, which will be hugely helpful to my collaborator and me. There’s no way I would have made this connection without the Public Impact Scholars program!”
We have also been encouraged by both City Hall partners and participants to continue running this program. All surveyed participants said they would “highly recommend” the program to a colleague: “While I had done some policy-oriented work and talked with local officials before, I learned so much at the City Hall Day that will help me better do policy work in the future, as well as develop stronger relationships with policy makers and other researchers.”