Findings and Recommendations
The Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE), which is the capstone of the Kennedy School’s Master in Public Policy (MPP) curriculum and the equivalent of a master's thesis, is a professional product, meant to clarify and address a practical policy or management problem for a real-world client. The client for this PAE was Massachusetts State Representative Mark Falzone (D-Saugus). The faculty advisor was Suzanne Cooper, a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Associate Academic Dean at the Harvard Kennedy School.
This paper was the winner of the Frederick Fisher Memorial Prize, which honors the memory of Fred Fisher, a 1977 graduate of the Kennedy School’s MPP Program, who was a committed public servant with particular concerns about the poor and vulnerable. The PAE’s authors – Megan Britt and Anna Hall -- both received their Master in Public Policy from the Kennedy School in June 2009.