History
The Harkness Fellows Association and Transatlantic Trust is the alumni association of the Harkness Fellowships, an international programme offering study fellowships in the USA. A number of former holders of Harkness Fellowships decided to ensure that alumni could stay connected and accordingly set up an association, the Harkness Fellows Association.
The HFA was registered as a charity with an educational remit for alumni on 13 September 2001. The Charity was also established as a private company limited by guarantee. In 2002 the HFA fundraised and secured money to produce a video to illustrate the breadth of the Fellowships and their impact on the lives and distinguished careers of a number of eminent Fellows.
The Association has no full-time staff. Its activities are carried out on a voluntary basis by Committee members and part-time administrative assistance is provided by Lizzie Clark.
Aims and Activities
The Company was set up with the aim of encouraging transatlantic understanding. By sustaining a supportive learning network of Harkness Fellows, we develop, encourage and promote initiatives that enhance international learning and understanding.
These initiatives include:-
- Exploring ways to encourage young people to study abroad, for example supporting the recruitment of future Harkness Fellows;
- Continuing and sharing our own learning with others to “give back”;
- Building partnerships where there is mutual benefit;
- Using the centenary of the Fellowships to promote the benefits of international understanding; and
- Supporting Commonwealth Fund international learning and fellowships activities.
Activities to sustain the network include:-
- Regular educational talks for alumni and others, often by alumni.
- Discussions to connect alumni across the ages and across disciplines;
- Support to returning Harkness Fellows;
- Maintaining a database of all Harkness Fellows;
- Website and newsletters;
- Promoting the achievements of fellows and impact of the fellowships as a result of international learning.
Membership of the Harkness Fellows Association is open to all interested in transatlantic relationships. The core of our members are former Harkness and Commonwealth Fund Fellows who at some stage in their careers enjoyed the benefit of living, studying and travelling in the United States of America.
If you wish to join the Harkness Fellows Association you may do so online by clicking here or alternatively you may contact the Association Office at admin@harknessfellows.org.uk.
The Committee
Judy Hargadon
Chair, Trustee & Director
After a long career in health care management, with posts including CEO of a Trust and a Health Authority, Judy was the Chief Executive of the School Food Trust, set up to transform school food after Jamie Oliver’s TV expose in 2005. Judy led the change from the Trust’s then NDPB status to an independent charity, the Children’s Food Trust. She is a non executive director for Devon CCG. She was a member of Council for the University of Exeter, a non executive director for Restorative Solutions CIC and has volunteered with charities that support struggling families in recent years.
Lesley Brown
Trustee & Director
Lesley Brown specialised in international corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate strategy. She has advised companies in Europe and the USA ranging from multinationals to start ups, across a broad range of business sectors. Recently retired, she was Managing Director of her own corporate finance boutique in London. She has previously worked with leading investment banks Lazard Brothers and Robert Fleming (now part of J P Morgan) as well as with the Boston Consulting Group. She holds degrees from Stanford University, California (MBA), Cambridge University (PhD Chemistry) and Edinburgh University (BSc (Hons) Chemistry).
Nicholas Cull
Nicholas J. Cull is professor of Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California. Nick was a Harkness Fellow at Princeton from 1988-90. He is a historian and theorist of the role of communication and exchange in international relations. Educated for both BA and PhD at Leeds, his career in the UK included serving as chair of American Studies program at the University of Leicester. He is a past president of the International Association for Media and History and a board member of the Public Diplomacy Association of America.
Mary Denyer
Trustee & Director
Mary Denyer is the Program Manager for the Notre Dame Law School London. She was the Assistant Secretary & Head of Scholarship Administration of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission for 20 years. Mary has an international perspective in matters related to education and policy, and has worked on all four of the largest British Government sponsored Scholarships: Marshall, Chevening, Commonwealth and Fulbright. She has a BA(Hons) in American Studies and History from the University College of Ripon and York St John (University of Leeds) and a PG Dip in Higher and Professional Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. She also spent a semester at the University of South Florida, Mary has served as a trustee for UKCISA and was a member of the Programmes Committee of the Royal Commonwealth Society. She is an active participant in the US National Association of Fellowship Advisors.
Timothy Hornsby
Chair Emeritus
Timothy Hornsby is former Chair and now the Chair Emeritus of the Harkness Fellows Association. His Board roles have included Chair of the International Tree Foundation, a Trustee of the British Architectural Trust Board, a Trustee of Field Lane charity, a Board Member of the Audience Agency and a Board member of King’s College Hospital Charity. In his previous career he occupied the Chief Executive posts at the National Lottery Charities Board (now the Big Lottery Fund), the Royal Borough of Kingston, and the Nature Conservancy Council, after a career in academic life and subsequently in the higher Civil Service.
Peter Jenkins
Committee Member
Peter Jenkins joined the Diplomatic Service (DS) on his return from a two-year Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School for Arts and Sciences, where he studied history and literature. During a 33-year diplomatic career he served in Vienna (twice), Washington, Paris, Brasilia and Geneva. He specialised in global nuclear and trade policy issues. Since leaving the DS he has formed a corporate problem-solving and diplomatic training partnership with former colleagues, and he writes and talks on his areas of specialisation. He lives in Bath with his Hong Kong wife, Angelina.
Nason Maani
Committee Member
Nason Maani currently holds a Lectureship in Inequalities and Global Health Policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the structural and corporate determinants of health, seeking to describe the various drivers and channels through which upstream determinants such as equity, the generation of knowledge and public discourse, and commercial actors, affect population health. His work has been featured in outlets such as the Milbank Quarterly, Lancet Public Health, JAMA, Scientific American and the BMJ in news reports including CNN, Voice of America, the Washington Post Reuters, the Guardian and the Telegraph. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, and was a 2019-2020 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow, based at Boston University School of Public Health, where he remains an adjunct Assistant Professor.
James Mountford
Committee Member
James Mountford is an executive coach, advisor and editor whose career spans medicine, healthcare leadership and higher education. His work focuses on helping leaders and teams learn, improve and navigate change with purpose. In 2005–06 he was a Harkness Fellow based at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston. Originally an NHS doctor, James worked at McKinsey and held local and national NHS leadership roles. During the pandemic he led quality and learning at London’s NHS Nightingale Hospital, a field hospital intensive care unit. He subsequently worked in international higher education with Galileo Global Education.
James is Editor-in-Chief of the journal BMJ Leader and a founder of The Quality Bureau.
Maddy Phipps-Taylor
Trustee & Director
Maddy returned from her Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy and Practice in 2015 and is now the Director of Strategy at Allocate Software – the world’s leading healthcare workforce management software provider. Prior to her fellowship she was Senior Policy Advisor to PM David Cameron at No 10 Downing Street. She had, at that point, experience as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and a Civil Servant following an education in Engineering at Oxford.
James Tickell
Trustee & Director
James Tickell’s fellowship was in 1991, which he spent at the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Since then, he has worked for a government regulator, and then a national trade body; in 2003 he co-founded a consultancy specialising in government, regulatory, charity and other non-profit clients. His own focus is on governance, strategy and assisting organisations in different forms of difficulty or crisis. He has written various books including on the Inca and Maya civilisations, and others more related to his professional activities.
Roy Williams
Committee Member, former Trustee & Director
Roy Williams held a Harkness Fellowship in 1963–64 at the Universities of Chicago and Berkeley. His career has seen him serve as a civil servant, mainly in the Department for Trade and Industry. He has worked as Principal Private Secretary to successive Secretaries of State and has been responsible at different times for trade and industrial policy. Since retiring as Deputy Secretary Director General, Roy has chaired a major charity and been involved in several quangos and various EU initiatives.
Administrator
Administrator
Our administrator, Lizzie, can be contacted at admin@harknessfellows.org.uk