Updated 2:43 p.m., Jan. 13.

Two former mayors and a previous prime minister of Haiti are among those selected to serve as spring semester fellows at the Institute of Politics, the IOP announced yesterday.

The six fellows, whose diverse backgrounds represent the many levels of public service that exist in today’s world, were chosen by a student advisory committee and IOP staff.

“We think—as did the founders of the Institute, as did President Kennedy and his family—that the critical part is the opportunity to meet with and learn from and follow those people who have themselves devoted their life to public service,” IOP Director Bill P. Purcell said.

The fellows will spend the semester in Cambridge and lead weekly study groups with students.

The group includes two mayors: Manny A. Diaz, the mayor of Miami from 2001-2009 and former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and Greg J. Nickels, who helped lead the coalition of mayors fighting for climate protection during his two terms as the mayor of Seattle.

“[Diaz and Nickels] both know a lot about American cities,” Purcell said, “but each has also been involved with and has been very thoughtful about broader international issues, from the environment to immigration.”

People with ties to Washington will also join the IOP this spring, including Ernest J. Istook, a former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma and a current distinguished fellow at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, and Mary Catherine "M.C" Andrews, former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and director of the White House Office of Global Communications.

Andrews, who holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School, expressed her excitement at returning to Cambridge this spring to lead a study group about the role of communication in international diplomacy.

“My time at the Kennedy School was absolutely pivotal about my thinking about public policy,” Andrews said. “I’m really excited to try to inspire some of the students I’ll have the chance to work with to get to know and to love the issue and to realize that it’s important.”

The other fellows will be Michèle Pierre-Louis, the former Prime Minister of Haiti, and John J. Sweeney, the President Emeritus of the AFL-CIO.

In contrast with the other fellows, Sweeney has spent his career working outside of the government, and he said that he looks forward to engaging in dialogue with the other fellows.

The topics and syllabi of the study groups, including information on guest speakers, will be available in the first weeks of the spring term, Purcell said. Students will also have the opportunity to meet all of the fellows at an open house on February 4.

—Staff writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu.