Skip to content
Navigating a New Political Landscape: View real-time updates about the impact of and Northeastern’s response to recent political changes.
Apply
Stories

Solving Public Problems | Beth Noveck

People in this story

Beth Noveck, Director, Burnes Center for Social Change

The challenges societies face today, from inequality to climate change to systemic racism, cannot be solved with yesterday’s toolkit. Solving Public Problems shows how readers can take advantage of digital technology, data, and the collective wisdom of our communities to design and deliver powerful solutions to contemporary problems. Offering a radical rethinking of the role of the public servant and the skills of the public workforce, this book is about the vast gap between failing public institutions and the huge number of public entrepreneurs doing extraordinary things—and how to close that gap.  
 
Drawing on lessons learned from decades of advising global leaders and from original interviews and surveys of thousands of public problem solvers, Beth Simone Noveck provides a practical guide for public servants, community leaders, students, and activists to become more effective, equitable, and inclusive leaders and repair our troubled, twenty-first-century world.

More Stories

A bust of Mr. Musk in Brownsville, Texas, where Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX has a launch site.

Trump Has Power, a Big Megaphone and Billions to Spend. So Does Musk.

06.06.2025
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Macomb Community College on April 29, 2025 at Warren, Michigan. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Gen Z Voters Are Ditching GOP for Midterms—Poll

06.06.2025

Deadly decisions? Trump cuts gut anti-crime programs as summer violence looms

06.06.25
All Stories