Game Changers

Allison Gofman

Allison is a sophomore at Harvard University studying Neurobiology and Government. She is interested in both science and politics and looks forward to working in science and technology policy after graduating. Technological and scientific innovation are among the biggest improvements to American and global quality of life, and she is eager to work on crucial issues like climate change and medical innovation by connecting scientists and politicians.

Currently, she serves as Secretary of the Harvard College Democrats, the largest partisan organization on campus, and volunteers for the Small Claims Advisory Service to provide legal information to Massachusetts residents going through the Small Claims Court system without a lawyer. She is also a staff writer at the Harvard Political Review. Allison’s political involvement is tempered by a scientific background of research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology. She spent two summers interning at the Social Cognitive Neuroscience lab at MIT under Dr. Rebecca Saxe and Dr. Mike Frank, cumulating the experience with an independent research project entitled “Preference for Goal Directed Action in Infants and at Four Years Old,” which explored infant and toddler preference for visual and motor categories and may have implications for autism research and infant development. She continued her research at the Moral Cognition lab at Harvard, where she assisted with a project on the neural basis of moral decisions.

Allison is very excited to be working with The Common Good this summer. She strongly supports in the organization’s mission of increasing political involvement and civil dialogue across the board, and is honored to have the opportunity to work with such a passionate and dynamic group.