Maja Niksic

Maja Niksic is the Program Director of the Rappaport Greater Boston Applied Field Lab at Harvard Kennedy School, where she leads innovative experiential learning programs that connect graduate students with city governments to address pressing financial, operational, and infrastructure challenges. In collaboration with Professors Linda Bilmes, Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, and Brian Iammartino she has directed projects that span capital budgeting, activity-based costing, climate resiliency, affordable housing, and political representation, while building long-term partnerships with municipal leaders across Greater Boston and the United States.

Previously, Maja served as Assistant Director of the Behavioral Insights Group (BIG) at Harvard Kennedy School, one of the world’s foremost hubs for applying behavioral science to public leadership and policy innovation. Working closely with BIG Faculty Director, Professor Todd Rogers, she developed flagship programs, major conferences, and cross-sector collaborations that brought together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to expand the impact of behavioral science for the public good.

Maja has been a long-time member of the adaptive leadership teaching teams at Harvard Kennedy School, working alongside Professors Ronald Heifetz, Hugh O’Doherty, Farayi Chipungu, and Tim O’Brien. She has coached and facilitated in courses such as Exercising Leadership: Politics of Change, Leadership from the Inside Out, and Developing People, guiding students, public officials, and senior military leaders through the practice of diagnosing adaptive challenges, navigating authority and power, and mobilizing people to make progress on the most complex issues of our time.