About us

Who are we?

We are university academics and practitioner-instructors who teach future public servants in schools of public policy and administration from around the world.

We came together via Harvard Kennedy School because we share a concern: our institutions are equipping graduates with industrial-era skills and competencies to solve digital-era problems. We can do better, and we have to do better.

Our team

Pontus Westerberg - Executive Director

Jillian LeBlanc - Events Coordinator

Dr Stephan Raimer - Workshop Facilitator

Honey Dacanay - Research Lead and Workshop Facilitator

Vicki Young - Communications and Marketing Manager

Our Board

Dr. Amanda Clarke - Associate Professor, Carleton University

David Eaves - Associate Professor, University College London

Dr. Ines Mergel - Full Professor, University of Konstanz

Tom Steinberg - Founder, mySociety & Co-Director Modern Grantmaking

Core members who met at our kick-off meeting in 2019 included:

Chris Allison - Director General, Canada School of Public Service

Dr. Amanda Clarke - Associate Professor, Carleton University

David Eaves - Lecturer of Public Policy, Harvard University

Dr. Tanya Filer - Policy & Research Leader: Digital State, Cambridge University

Dr. Dr. Robert Krimmer, Full Professor, Tallinn University of Technology

Dr. Ines Mergel - Full Professor, University of Konstanz

Dr. Vernie Oliveiro - Civil Service College, Singapore

Tom Steinberg - Co-Director and Founding Editor, Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age

Sameer Vasta - Lecturer of Digital Government, University of Waterloo

For details of who contributed directly to the creation of our syllabus, see this page.

What are we trying to achieve?

We are trying to drive up the overall number of public servants who have the fundamental skills they need to succeed in the digital era.

We believe that one of the main barriers that prevents more public servants acquiring the skills they need is a lack of the right kind of teaching and training, both in universities and within in-house government teaching academies. Our ambition is to grow the amount of high quality teaching and training through two routes:

1 - Provide free, high quality teaching materials that can be used to build skills, both in university and government settings. Our syllabus and our competencies are our first main deliverables.

2 - Grow a peer network of lecturers, teachers and professors across the world, to share wisdom and experience about how to build these skills.

What stage are we at now?

We are still in our startup phase, but we have:

Published the eight core competencies that we believe all public service leaders need to develop alongside their more traditional public service competencies.
Published our full open access Masters Level syllabus, which has been designed to be taught in whole or in part in universities around the world.

Can I be involved?

Yes, we’d love you to be involved! There are several ways you can get involved:

Talk to us and ask us questions. We love talking to people who are considering making use of our materials in their own classes. Please either drop us an email with a question, or book in now for a totally free 20 minute Zoom call where we’ll be delighted to say hi and answer any questions you may have.

Use our materials to help you teach Digital Era skills. We’ve been working hard to make sure that our teaching materials are as reusable and flexible to context as possible, whilst still being achored in core competencies.

If you are a dean or course director, we can help you to plan to implement digital-era skills and competencies in your own masters teaching. Again, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.