Lessons from the center of the state’s pandemic
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation sat down with Katharine Robb, a postdoctoral research fellow at the center’s Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative where she has been conducting research on housing and health in Chelsea, Mass. This densely populated city adjacent to Boston has seen some of the worst COVID-19 infection rates in the state. Robb completed her doctorate in public health degree at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2019. While pursuing her doctorate, Robb worked as an Innovation Field Lab fellow in Chelsea, ultimately focusing her dissertation on her work with the field lab, where she developed and implemented a novel social-service referral program within the city’s Inspectional Services Department. The program leverages the unique role of housing inspectors to link at-risk residents with services to prevent problem properties and social and health crises. Q&A Katharine Robb Ash Center: Were you at all surprised that Chelsea has...