Kenzie Bok, “The Past, Present, and Future of Public Housing”

Name: Kenzie Bok, “The Past, Present, and Future of Public Housing”
Start: 2026-03-05T18:30:00-05:00
End: 2026-03-05T20:00:00-05:00
Location: Harvard University Graduate School Of Design

Schedule

Thu Mar 05 2026 at 06:30 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Harvard University Graduate School Of Design | Cambridge, MA

Join us for the 25th Annual John T. Dunlop Lecture, presented by Kenzie Bok, the CEO of the Boston Housing Authority.
About this Event

Livestream Link: This event will be in person and livestreamed. The livestream is available at the top of this page: https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/the-past-present-and-future-of-public-housing/
Please note: RSVP does not guarantee entry, which is filled on a first-come-first-served basis. Doors open 15 minutes before the event begins, so be sure to arrive early.

About This Event

In the 25th Annual John T. Dunlop Lecture, presented by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Kenzie Bok, CEO of the Boston Housing Authority and former Boston City Councilor, will bring together her experiences as a pioneering public housing administrator and intellectual historian to explore the past, present, and future of public housing in the United States. She will discuss how justice, fairness, and the role of government have shaped public housing, and how these ideas must evolve to meet today’s interconnected challenges of affordability, climate change, and inequality.

Speaker

Kenzie Bok is the administrator and CEO of the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), which oversees approximately 10,000 affordable rental units in 56 developments and administers nearly 15,000 rental vouchers. Under her leadership, the BHA has become a national leader in decarbonizing public housing, renovating aging units, and expanding the supply of affordable homes, advancing mixed-income development on public land. Bok has served two terms on Boston City Council, where she led efforts to increase funding for rental vouchers and affordable homeownership programs. She also co-authored Boston’s groundbreaking Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing zoning amendment, helped create a green jobs program, and spearheaded the appropriation process for the city’s American Rescue Plan funds, which provided over $250 million for affordable housing. Her leadership is informed by her training as a historian. She received an MPhil and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a BA from Harvard and has served as a lecturer at Harvard.