Two advisory committees named

Harvard’s presidential search committee, comprising the 12 members of the University’s Corporation other than the president along with three members of the Board of Overseers, today announced the membership of the faculty and staff advisory committees for the search. The composition of a third advisory committee, consisting of students from across the University, will be announced later in the summer.

The members of the faculty advisory committee are as follows:

• Robin Kelsey (chair), Shirley Carter Burden Professor of Photography and dean of Arts and Humanities (Faculty of Arts and Sciences), co-chair of the Harvard University Committee on the Arts;
• William Alford, Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, vice dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies, director of the East Asian Legal Studies program, and chair of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability (Harvard Law School);
• Anita Berrizbeitia, professor of landscape architecture and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture (Harvard Graduate School of Design);
• Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America (Harvard Divinity School);
• Stephen Elledge, Gregor Mendel Professor of Genetics and of Medicine and investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Harvard Medical School);
• David Ellwood, Isabelle and Scott Black Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, and former dean of the faculty of government (Harvard Kennedy School);
• Claudine Gay, Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and of African and African American Studies and dean of social science (Faculty of Arts and Sciences);
• Hopi Hoekstra, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard College Professor, investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and curator of mammals in the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Faculty of Arts and Sciences);
• Bridget Terry Long, Saris Professor of Education and Economics and former academic dean (Harvard Graduate School of Education);
• Youngme Moon, Donald K. David Professor of Business Administration and senior associate dean for strategy and innovation (Harvard Business School);
• Alison Simmons, Samuel H. Wolcott Professor of Philosophy (Faculty of Arts and Sciences);
• Salil Vadhan, Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics and area chair for computer science (Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences); and
• Dyann Wirth, Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases, chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and director of the Harvard Malaria Initiative (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health); and faculty chair, Harvard Integrated Life Sciences.

“Our faculty drive the intellectual ambitions and the academic excellence of this extraordinary University, and we’re very grateful to these distinguished professors from across Harvard for their willingness to devote their time and insights to the critical effort ahead,” said William F. Lee, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation and chair of the search committee. “We’re also grateful to the hundreds of members of the Harvard community who have already written to convey their thoughts on the presidential search, and we hope to continue hearing from faculty, students, staff, and alumni who have perspectives they wish to share.”

“I am honored to be chairing the faculty advisory committee for the presidential search,” said Kelsey. “The Harvard community has a vital task ahead, and my faculty colleagues and I look forward to lending whatever insight and wisdom we can to ensure that the search is a success.”

The staff advisory committee consists of a subset of the University’s Administrative Council, which comprises the administrative deans of various schools and a number of senior central officers. The members of the staff advisory committee are as follows:

• Katie Lapp (chair), executive vice president;
• Patricia Byrne, executive dean, Harvard Divinity School;
• Angela Crispi, executive dean for administration, Harvard Business School;
• Marilyn Hausammann, vice president for human resources;
• Jack Jennings, executive dean for administration, Harvard Graduate School of Education;
• Leslie Kirwan, dean of administration and finance, Faculty of Arts and Sciences;
• Diane Lopez, deputy general counsel;
• Nisha Mongia, executive dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; and
• Meredith Weenick, vice president for campus services.

The members of the committee, together with colleagues on the Administrative Council from across the Schools and the central administration departments, will play a lead role in soliciting advice related to the search from the much wider population of staff members throughout Harvard and in conveying key findings and observations to the search committee.

“Staff members across Harvard play an indispensable role in advancing the mission of the University, and Harvard could not be Harvard without their dedication, energy, and skill,” said Lee. “The search committee looks forward to benefiting from their insights and advice.”

“Our committee plans to reach out widely to our staff colleagues across the University to make sure their views are heard at this important time of transition for Harvard,” said Lapp, chair of the staff advisory committee. “All of us are invested in the future of this remarkable institution, and this is a moment to think broadly about how we can best contribute to shaping that future.”

All members of the Harvard community are encouraged to send advice and nominations directly to the search committee, in confidence, by email to psearch@harvard.edu or by regular mail to the Harvard University Presidential Search Committee, Loeb House, 17 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138.