Former Nashville Mayor To Serve as IOP Director at Harvard

Former Nashville mayor Bill P. Purcell has been selected as the new director of the Institute of Politics (IOP), the institute announced this week.

“It’s one of the great professional opportunities in my life,” said Purcell, a Democrat who served as mayor from 1999 to 2007. “In many ways, all the things that I have been doing in my life have lead to this point.”

Purcell, who will become the director on Sept. 1, will assume a post that was originally vacated by former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat who returned to her home state to run for the U.S. Senate. Former Representative Jim Leach, a moderate Republican from Iowa, served as interim director for the past year before returning to an academic position at his alma mater, Princeton.

Purcell, who served as an IOP fellow last fall, said that he hopes to expand the support for students interested in careers in public service and enhance international opportunities for students. Above all, he said, he wants undergraduates to remain the focus of the institute.

“We need to perfect and enhance the core mission of involvement and engagement with the undergraduates of Harvard,” Purcell said. “There are undoubtedly areas in which we can break new ground, but we need to focus our main attempts on the undergraduates.”

Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood ’75 praised Purcell’s political and managerial experience, describing him an “effective and thoughtful mayor.”

“He brings the credibility, creativity, and competence we look for in a director,” Ellwood said.

He also commended Purcell for his bipartisanship, citing his hiring of a Republican chief of staff when he was mayor. Before being elected mayor, Purcell served for ten years as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, including six as majority leader.

After coming to Harvard last year, Purcell led an IOP study group on 21st century American cities. The group examined the characteristics essential to a successful city, the demands citizens place on local governments, and what people look for in deciding where to live.

“What was very clear here was that the interest of students is at an all-time high in terms of public service,” said Purcell, who returned to his hometown in January to lead Vanderbilt's Child and Family Policy Center. “I found their enthusiasm and interest contagious for everyone involved in this program.”

The process of selecting a new director began with the formation of an advisory search committee that included Kennedy School faculty and members of the IOP Senior Advisory Committee, including Caroline B. Kennedy ’80, whose father the IOP intends to memorialize. The final selection was made by Ellwood.

—Staff writer Lauren D. Kiel can be reached at ldkiel@fas.harvard.edu.