“We felt we had the vaccine to poverty. And it would be irresponsible for us to hold that close to the chest.” - Kwame Owusu-Kesse
Kwame Owusu-Kesse grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts. His mother worked two jobs as a hospital housekeeper. A scholarship to a Catholic school changed his life trajectory, which Kwame came about because his mother played bingo at the school and the nuns took a liking to her. He calls it “the luck of bingo.”
Kwame knew to seize that opportunity and went on to Harvard, Morgan Stanley, and eventually Harlem Children’s Zone, where he now serves as CEO. He took over in 2020, just as COVID-19 hit New York. HCZ raised $54 million for relief in Harlem and six other cities, before turning the emergency work into a national strategy. He now thinks of Harlem as an R&D lab for fighting intergenerational poverty.
In this conversation, Kwame and I talk about leadership in fundamentally uncertain times, including how he thinks about the difficult decision to close and then reopen schools during a global pandemic, and also why he thinks the Harlem Children’s Zone needs to move beyond education and focus on wealth building.
I think you’re going to really enjoy hearing Kwame’s inspiring story.
As always, let me know what you think at david@thecontextwindow.com.
[00:00] Cold open
[00:18] Guest introduction
[01:44] From Worcester to Harvard Yard
[02:59] “The luck of bingo”
[05:01] The acceptance letter
[07:02] Leadership as responsibility
[10:04] On Harvard and privilege
[13:01] Gratitude without exceptionalism
[16:01] Why Morgan Stanley
[17:51] Purpose without poverty
[19:14] Banking and the 2008 financial crisis
[20:54] Meeting Geoffrey Canada, mentor and father figure
[23:29] Back to Harvard and HCZ
[25:59] Options and commitment
[29:29] From COO to CEO
[32:41] CEO-elect before COVID-19
[34:14] Making decisions under uncertainty
[35:14] Taking HCZ’s model national
[36:59] Harlem as an R&D lab and “the vaccine to poverty”
[39:01] Remote learning and reopening schools
[41:17] Wealth Builds, services plus capital
[44:04] The limits of education and the social determinants of thriving
[46:41] Income and wealth
[50:37] Preparing to lead
[53:04] Work, marriage and fatherhood
[56:27] Schools versus neighborhoods
[59:24] Promise Neighborhoods
[1:01:24] Geoffrey Canada’s legacy
[1:04:04] Harvard as home and Kwame’s three degrees
[1:05:41] Harvard’s public responsibility
People
Geoffrey Canada - the Harlem Children’s Zone longtime leader, whom Kwame describes as a mentor and father figure.
Anne Williams-Isom - CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone from 2014-2020, under whom Kwame served as chief operating officer.
Roland Fryer - Harvard economist who co-wrote the study of the Harlem Children’s Zone’s schools.
Will Dobbie - Fryer’s co-author on the Harlem Children Zone study, now a professor at Princeton.
Raj Chetty - Harvard economist whose Opportunity Atlas traces children’s adult outcome down to the neighborhood level, cited by Kwame.
William Julius Wilson - Harvard sociologist after whom the Zone’s national institute is named.
Barack Obama - who pledged as a presidential candidate to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in 20 cities, a plan that became Promised Neighborhoods
Martin Luther King Jr. - with whom Kwame compared Geoffrey Canada after their first meeting.
Organizations and programs
Wealth Builds - HCZ’s economic-mobility initiative, launched in 2021, now operating in New York, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Oakland.
William Julius Wilson Institute - HCZ’s national arm, founded by Geoffrey Canada, supporting communities in replicating the model.
Promise Academy Charter Schools - HCZ’s free, top-performing K12 public charter schools in Harlem, NY, supporting low-income students to and through college.
Promise Neighborhoods, U.S. Department of Education - federal program modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Phillips Brooks House Association - Harvard public-service organization behind the Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program, which Kwame led as an undergrad.
The Morgan Stanley Ambassador Program - post 9/11 program that paid one analyst’s salary at a non-profit each year, which Kwame also describes in a Sixth Street conversation.
Research
Will Dobbie and Roland G. Fryer Jr., “Are High-Quality Schools Enough to Close the Achievement Gap? Evidence from a Social Experiment in Harlem” (AEJ, 2011)
Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren, “The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects” (QJE, 2018)
Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie R. Jones, and Sonya R. Porter, “The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility” (AER, 2026)
Kwame Owusu-Kesse, “Universal Economic Mobility for All America’s Children”
Media
“Stellar Seniors” (Harvard Magazine, 2006) - profile of Kwame Owusu-Kesse
Waiting for “Superman” (2010) - the documentary that featured Geoffrey Canada and brought Harlem Children’s Zone national attention.
TIME100 Next 2024 - Kwame honored for his leadership at HCZ
Stefanos Chen, “A Plan to Help Harlem Students Build Wealth: Start Them Off With $10,000” (The New York Times, 2024)
Kwame Owusu-Kesse is CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, a non-profit providing place-based, cradle-to-career services to children and families across more than 100 blocks in Central Harlem. Born to Ghanian immigrant parents in Worcester, Massachusetts, Owusu-Kesse earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College in 2006, and joined Morgan Stanley as an analyst. He first came to the Harlem Children’s Zone in 200 through the bank’s Ambassador Program, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School in 2012, and returned to HCZ that year as managing director and special assistant to CEO Geoffrey Canada. He became chief executive officer in 2020 after serving as chief operating officer. Under his leadership, HCZ expanded its national work through the William Julius Wilson Institute and launched Wealth Builds. He was named to the 2024 TIME100 Next. He lives in New York City with his wife and their two daughters.
Host: David Deming, Danoff Dean of Harvard College
Executive Producer: Denise Koller Consulting Producers: Tim Smith and Jonathan Palumbo Produced by: Cabin 3 Media - Katie Toulmin, Producer; Justin Callahan, Director of Photography/Editor
Special thanks to Debbie Press and the Harvard Club of New York City.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.