Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to take on new role at Harvard

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Tuesday that she’ll join Harvard University for a semester as she takes on two fellowships after exiting her country’s Parliament.

Ardern said she’s “incredibly humbled” to join Harvard Kennedy School as its 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and as a Hauser Leader at the school’s Center for Public Leadership.

“Jacinda Ardern showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership,” Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said in a statement Tuesday.  “She earned respect far beyond the shores of her country, and she will bring important insights for our students and will generate vital conversations about the public policy choices facing leaders at all levels.”

The ex-prime minister will also work with the Berkman Klein Center at the Harvard Law School as its first Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow, the school said.

“It’s rare and precious for a head of state to be able to immerse deeply in a complex and fast-moving digital policy issue both during and after their service,” said Professor Jonathan Zittrain, the co-founder and faculty director of Berkman Klein Center, in a statement.

Ardern said the center has been “an incredibly important partner” as New Zealand worked to address violent extremism online after a white supremacist shooter killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand’s Christchurch in 2019.

“While I’ll be gone for a semester (helpfully the one that falls during the NZ general election!) I’ll be coming back at the end of the fellowships. After all, New Zealand is home!” Ardern said in an Instagram post.

After more than five years as prime minister, Ardern announced her resignation in January — several months before New Zealand’s general election later this year — saying she no longer had “enough in the tank” to continue leading the island nation.