MPA Student Gloria Fortner Wins Rappaport Fellowship

Congratulations to MPA student Gloria Fortner on being selected for a 2026 Rappaport Public Policy Summer Fellowship at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. 

The Rappaport Fellowship supports students in applying their skills and commitment to good governance to Greater Boston’s most pressing public policy challenges. For Gloria, that will mean working with a Greater Boston government agency on policy at the intersection of arts, culture, and public investment, building on her concentration in arts administration and policy. 

Gloria’s research and policy interests focus on arts and culture funding for lower-income communities, nonprofit sustainability, and the role of public policy in supporting working artists.  

Her recent coursework at Northeastern has included collaborative policy analysis work with Brookline Community Development Corporation on emergency rental assistance and an upcoming panel that she will present under Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs professor Akua Tetteh, PhD and fellow graduate students Aleemah Williams, Amari Rivera, and 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗧. 𝗖𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲 for the 2026 Social Equity and Leadership Conference. Her presentation focuses on The Concilio in North Texas and its role as a pillar of nonprofit resilience in advancing Latino mobility amid shifting federal, state, and local policies. 

After she completes the Rappaport Fellowship, Gloria will travel to Athens, Greece in Fall 2026 to engage in a co-op with the EPLO European Public Law Organization. In that role, she will explore comparative approaches to public law and cultural policy in a European context, expanding her understanding of how governments at different levels support civic institutions.