Safo-Mensa, Fernand Elected to Lead Phillips Brooks House Association

Nana K.B. Safo-Mensa ’26 was elected the next student president of the Harvard Phillips Brooks House Association, the organization announced Thursday.

Safo-Mensa will take office on Feb. 1, 2025, alongside newly-elected vice president Alex Fernand ’26 and 17 other students who will serve on next year’s PBHA Officers Committee.

The PBHA, a student-led 501(c)(3) non-profit, is the largest public service organization on Harvard’s campus. The organization is made up of more than 80 student-led initiatives, including the Cambridge After School Program, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, and Harvard CIVICS.

Safo-Mensa ’26, who has been a part of PBHA since his freshman fall and currently serves as one of the organization’s resource development chairs, said he saw it as a “tremendous honor” to be elected the next president of PBHA.

“I’m just really glad that I get to work with many of the same people that have become some of my best friends over the past few years, and also to serve the organization in a great capacity and represent us on a larger scale,” he said.

Members of the PBHA Cabinet — a governing body made up of the student directors of each PBHA program — vote on officer positions at the end of each fall semester.

PBHA is housed within Harvard College’s Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship. The president, vice president, and several other members of the Officers Committee serve as student representatives on PBHA’s Board of Trustees, which oversees budget decisions and long-term planning.

Safo-Mensa and Fernand will succeed current president Cody A. Vasquez ’25 and current vice president Talia G. Levitt ’25. Safo-Mensa is a Social Studies concentrator in Adams House, and Fernand — who currently serves as PBHA secretary — is a Statistics and Sociology concentrator in Currier House.

Safo-Mensa said he thought the “most important thing ahead” will be preparing for planned renovations of the Phillips Brooks House, PBHA’s historic building in Harvard Yard.

He and Fernand plan to focus on “making sure we have not only a definitive and workable plan for what the future will look like, but also for the perhaps year-or-two-long period where PBHA cannot be in Phillips Brooks House,” Safo-Mensa said.

He said he also hopes to prioritize making PBHA more financially sustainable and rebuilding relationships with local organizations that fell apart during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Levitt, the outgoing vice president, said she is “so excited” for the newly elected officers and that she has “no doubts at all” about their plans and commitment to PBHA.

Benjamin A. Abbott ’28, who was elected student development chair, said he hoped to encourage PBHA volunteers to reflect on their participation in public service.

“Every student at Harvard, we carry immense privilege in being here,” Abbott said. “And I think that immense privilege should be pointed towards a goal, and that goal should be bettering our Commonwealth and our country.”