Two Profs Named ‘Best Leaders’

The two Harvard professors who founded Partners in Health join notable names like Bill Gates, Class of 1977, and Oprah Winfrey on a list of “America’s Best Leaders” compiled by the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at the Kennedy School of Government.

The list, published in this week’s issue of U.S. News and World Report, profiles 25 men and women, ranging from national celebrities to CEOs, politicians, and social entrepreneurs.

“There are individuals who are sterling examples of good leadership who are in our midst,” said CPL Director David Gergen, one of the project’s two co-chairs. “We felt that by spotlighting them and telling their stories they might serve as examples to others.”

CPL selected a group of 35 judges, themselves leaders in both the private and public domain, to winnow down an original list of 300 nominees.

One of the judges, Alan A. Khazei ’83, said they were looking for people who helped develop other leaders and made unique contributions in their fields.

“You don’t have to be a household name to be an outstanding leader,” Khazei said.

Harvard’s Presley Professor of Social Medicine Paul E. Farmer and Associate Clinical Professor of Social Medicine Jim Yong Kim, the two founders of Partners in Health, made the list for their work improving health care in poor nations.

Both said they were surprised to appear on the list.

“I can think of other leaders in public health and medicine who are better candidates for such a distinction,” Farmer wrote in an e-mail.

“To be comparing us to Oprah is quite outlandish,” Kim added.

Gergen said he hoped the list would help leaders promote their organizations, but Kim said he has received little attention from the article so far.

“My suspicion is it’s going to be very low key,” Kim said. “I certainly hope that it will turn into a lot more money to support [Partners in Health].”

The list comes in response to a negative American attitude towards leadership and is part of a general effort by CPL to draw more attention to the subject of leadership, according to Gergen.

“At a time when many Americans are disillusioned with their leaders, we thought it was important to explore the issues of leadership,” Gergen said. “We want to raise the issue of the quality of leadership in our public discourse about who’s responsible for the performance of our major institutions.”

CPL Executive Director Betsy Myers said she hopes that the list can show a more positive side of leadership.

“There’s a lot of people doing great leadership,” Myers said. “The light hasn’t been shown on them.”

While the leaders chosen extend across fields and spotlight both known and unknown faces, the committee chose to exclude past presidents or people who may run in the future, according to Khazei.

The list also places a new focus on the general field of social entrepreneurship.

“Many of the leaders on this list are not just successful at what they do, but they also have deep social concern and are seeking social change,” Gergen said.

Bill Drayton ’65, who first developed the idea for his non-profit organization Ashoka around a dinner table in Lowell House, is one of the social entrepreneurs named on the list. He stressed the importance of this growing field.

“It’s not just you and me, but everyone could be a change-maker,” Drayton said. “If this [story] helps even one percent of the readers say to themselves, ‘If those people can do it, maybe I can,’ that makes the whole enterprise worth it.”

—Laura A. Moore contributed to the reporting of this story.