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The Belfer Center has developed a comprehensive strategy aimed at fostering diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB) in our community and work. The Center’s approach to DIB has been multipronged – every functional and project team at the Center has developed an individual DIB action plan (over 20 unique plans) and set goals across the eight DIB principles outlined in the Center's overall DIB strategy. Belfer has prioritized achieving gender balance and racial diversity through a number of bottom up and top down initiatives including, among other things: convening a staff-led speaker series, forming partnerships with professional organizations representing minorities, creating a new Center-wide pulse survey to assess work environment and culture.
Bio:
Karen Ejiofor is the Project Coordinator for the Technology and Public Purpose Project. Before coming to the Belfer Center, Karen worked in New Hampshire where she managed two state senate campaigns. Prior to graduation, Karen was very active on her college campus, serving as class president, Chair of Kevin Harrington Student Program at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics and creating a committee to combat sexual assault on her college campus. Karen graduated from Saint Anselm College with a B.A in Philosophy and a concentration in Politics and Communication. She is pursuing a degree at Harvard School of Education studying International Education Policy where she focuses on 21st century global competences, digital literacy and future of work in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Amritha Jayanti is a Research Assistant at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where she supports the Belfer Center’s Director and former U.S. Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter. Her work focuses on emerging technology and international security. Prior to joining the Belfer Center, Amritha was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk where she primarily researched the governance of artificial intelligence in Western military organizations. She has also worked as a policy intern at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation, and as a product manager at Clara Labs, a San Francisco-based startup. She also founded a nonprofit, Technica, that encourages gender diversity in computer science. Amritha received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Maryland, where she studied computer engineering, economics, and public policy.
Erika Manouselis is currently the Project Coordinator for the Future of Diplomacy Project and the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. Previously, she worked as an advisor and speechwriter at the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations from 2016-2017 and as an immigration law paralegal. She is a first generation American, with citizenships in the U.S., Brazil, and Greece, and a first generation college student who holds a B.A. in Classics and political science with honors from Brown University, an MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History from the University of Cambridge. Her interests include educational equity, international and domestic inequality, multilateral organizations, and U.S. immigration policy.