Fleur Malease is living proof of the value that comes with professional and lifelong learning. She recently completed both the Public Leadership Credential (PLC), as well as her Master’s Degree in Public Administration at Harvard Kennedy School (vlog). During her time at the PLC, she worked at the World Health Organization as an External Relations and Partnerships Officer and provided support to the Mothers at Risk project in Kinshasa, a mobile clinic serving vulnerable women. She has also worked across the globe with the United Nations System, her most recent staff position being at the United Nations Children’s Fund as a Donor Relations Officer.
Fleur enrolled in the PLC with clear goals in mind, all tailored to the work she had been doing in her career up until that point. However, once she began the PLC, she felt her professional interests starting to evolve and shift. Instead of forcing a path she knew was no longer serving her, she embraced her changing mindset and took the opportunity to change course.
Specifically, there were two major aspects of the PLC that made a profound impact on Fleur and her eventual shift in career trajectory. First, she was prompted to completely reevaluate what it meant to be an effective leader. “Prior to completing the PLC, I thought I had the concept of leadership figured out,” she said. “I believed I knew what my values and boundaries were, and that I had sound positions on key social issues affecting the world. I understood leadership as the quality of leading by convincing people. I now know that leadership has nothing to do with someone’s capacity to convince, but with someone’s capacity to mobilize people around a common value or goal.”
Secondly, the relationships and collaboration with her PLC cohort exposed her to new ways of thinking that she hadn’t anticipated, especially coming from a professional background that enabled her to work across the globe. “Even though I was working in an international setting as a United Nations staff member, nothing compares with the PLC (or vlog) when it comes to encounters and discussions with people from all around the world and all walks of life,” she said. “My classmates from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Canada, the State of Israel, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, or Palestine, introduced me to different sets of values and realities of the world that I did not even know existed.”
Her PLC experience proved to be so impactful that she decided it was time for a significant change. “Since completing the PLC, my life took a 180-degree turn,” she said. “The journey was so transformative that I needed more than one and a half years of online classes. I wanted to complete the PLC all over again. I chose the next best option: I applied and was admitted to Harvard Kennedy School for a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.”
“The teachings are challenging but incredible, and you will earn invaluable takeaways that will guide you through the rest of your life,” she said. “If you wonder whether the PLC is the right path for you, my advice would be: just do it! You won’t regret it.” As a 2024 graduate, Fleur is now exploring the opportunities that lay ahead of her and is grateful to the PLC for launching her into a new chapter of life that she was never expecting.