The Program on Crisis Leadership contributes to the extensive activities of Executive Education at Harvard Kennedy School, which offers programs for leaders from around the world. These short, intensive training programs bring experienced professionals together with Harvard faculty and guest speakers for highly participatory explorations of issues in emergency management, crisis leadership, and disaster recovery.
Leadership in Crises: Preparation and Performance: Offered since 2002, this intensive one-week program brings together senior officials from all levels of American government, the private and non-profit sectors, other countries, and international organizations. This program focuses on the requisites of decision making and coordinated action by leaders and their organizations in times of crisis – and what advance preparation can make crisis performance more effective.
Crisis Leadership in Higher Education: A collaboration of faculty from Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Graduate School of Education, this program offers senior leaders of institutions of higher education the opportunity to enhance skills needed to respond to a wide range of crises – physical, health, and reputational – that may challenge college and university communities.
General and Flag Officer Homeland Security Executive Seminar: Designed by PCL faculty specifically for the National Guard and the United States Coast Guard, the seminar emphasizes the critical role the agencies play as the backbone of the nation’s leadership cadre for providing the essential intermediate response to large, complex, multi-jurisdiction, multilevel, multisectoral events.
Leadership in Homeland Security: Organized in partnership with the National Guard, this program is offered to field grade and senior non-commissioned officers and is based on PCL's core executive education course "Leadership in Crises."
China Crisis Management: This program – taught in Beijing for senior officials with emergency management responsibilities in the national, provincial, and city levels in China – is a collaboration of PCL and two of China’s leading academic institutions: the Chinese Academy of Governance (formerly the China National School of Administration) and Tsinghua University.
Other Programs: In addition to these specialized executive education programs, PCL faculty teach in several other initiatives offered by Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education. These include the (a collaboration with the Harvard School of Public Health), the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government, and several other “custom” programs for officials from specific governments.