Katharine Lusk is the Executive Director of the Initiative on Cities at Boston University. Katharine served as a Policy Advisor to the late Boston Mayor Tom Menino, where she led his work to make Boston the first city in the country to achieve pay equity for women. She received a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was the recipient of the Barbara Jordan Award for Women’s Leadership and the Manuel Carballo Award for her graduate thesis modeling state-run paid family leave for Massachusetts. At the Boston University’s Initiative on Cities, she spearheads new university-wide programs and research, including the Menino Survey of Mayors, student government fellowships and multi-stakeholder conferences, and serves as Senior Personnel to a number of federally funded research grants devoted to smart cities and the urban environment.