Sexual Assault Advisor Avery To Step Down

After advising on issues of sexual harassment and sexual violence for seven years, Karen E. Avery ’87 will step down from her post as Assistant Dean of Harvard College and Director of the Ann Radcliffe Trust.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 announced yesterday that Julia G. Fox, special assistant to the dean of the College, will take over for Avery on July 1.

In overseeing issues of co-education, sexual assault and sexual harassment, Avery has come under fire at times from students discontent with the College’s sexual assault policy.

Last May, students from the Coalition Against Sexual Violence protested after the Faculty tightened the standards for sexual assault investigations.

Lewis said Avery—who defended the policy change in a speech at the rally—handled the contentious issue well throughout her tenure as dean.

“Dean Avery has provided profoundly wise advice both to women students and to the Faculty and the College administration about individual and systemic issues concerning sexual violence,” Lewis wrote in an e-mail. “Her wisdom and care about this very difficult issue will be missed.”

Avery also supervised the creation of the Ann Radcliffe Trust, which provides funding for student groups that deal with women’s issues within the College.

Avery said she hopes the Trust will be “some sort of lasting legacy.”

But Avery said she is confident that Fox—who has twice acted as dean during Avery’s maternity leaves—will be a good successor.

“Judy Fox is a wonderful person and I was always worried that she did the job too well while I was gone,” Avery joked. “She’s really going to have the right frame of mind and I’m thrilled she’s taking my job.”

Aside from filling in for Avery, Fox has become familiar with issues of sexual assault through her work on the committee appointed by Lewis and Provost Steven E. Hyman last spring to examine sexual assault resources on campus.

She will also retain some of her current responsibilities, which include directing the Parents Association and coordinating both the transfer and visiting students programs.

Fox said she is particularly looking forward to working with the students on the Trust.

“I’m really excited about the Ann Radcliffe Trust and the potential there,” Fox said. “I’m going to be spending a lot of time thinking and working on it, and talking with students about what direction it should go in.”

Avery will move to the Washington, D.C. region where her husband has just accepted a new job.

Avery will be leaving Harvard for the first time since arriving here as an undergraduate in 1983.

After graduating from the College in 1987, Avery became a proctor, attended the Graduate School of Education and worked in the admissions office before becoming an assistant dean in 1995.

Avery said she is looking for a job—possibly in a “non-university environment”—in D.C.

“It’ll be interesting to see if one day I’ll be able to cut the cord with Mother Harvard,” Avery told the Crimson last February while on maternity leave.

But now that she is leaving, both she and her colleagues said they doubt this will be the end of her connection to Harvard.

“Hopefully we’ll keep in close touch,” Fox said. “I don’t think she can stay away from her alma mater for long.”

—Staff writer Sarah M. Seltzer can be reached at sseltzer@fas.harvard.edu.