Jocelyn Hare

Jocelyn Chou Hare is Senior Assistant Director of Harris Policy Labs at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. In this role, she works with students and clients to research, analyze, and implement urban policies that serve local organizations and government institutions within their respective cities. Jocelyn believes the transformative potential of technology can improve our cities by bringing power to communities historically underserved by politicians and business interests. She and has helped to win funds for demolition of vacant buildings and the creation of a culinary arts incubator, ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen, in Gary, Indiana.

Jocelyn was trained as an urban policy practitioner, Jocelyn’s and her lifetime of activism has connected her to a variety of colleagues working for social justice together with youth, people of color, women, LGBTQ folks, workers, and other underrepresented groups—--and she is dedicated to policies that serve those communities. As a former board member of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance and current board member of Chicago’s Pride Action Tank, she understands that community members must be involved in shaping their own futures and the future of their cities. Inspired by her work with Mayor Freeman-Wilson in Gary and by colleagues at the Harris School, Jocelyn ran for Chicago’s City Council in 2015—-- developing a love for politics and “the game” in the process.

Jocelyn earned her master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has spent the past decade of her career implementing policy initiatives in the Chicago Public Schools, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and at the University of Chicago