Heenan Named Harvard's Newest VP

Christine Heenan, a veteran of federal government, university public relations, and communications consulting, will become Harvard's next vice president for government, community and public affairs, University President Drew G. Faust announced Tuesday.

She will assume the post on October 1.

Heenan comes to Harvard from Clarendon Group, a consulting firm for communications and government relations that she founded in 2000 after directing community and government relations at Brown University. Previously, she served as a domestic policy adviser and speechwriter in the Clinton White House.

She replaces Alan J. Stone, also a former Clinton speechwriter, who oversaw Harvard's government, community, and media relations efforts for nearly seven years before stepping down earlier this month.

In an interview Tuesday, Heenan named Allston first in discussing her plans for the coming year and said she felt her experience with Brown's institutional master planning has prepared her well for the public relations challenges there.

She said her time at Brown taught her the "importance" of ensuring different parts of a university are "working in a deeply coordinated way," a sentiment that fits Mass. Hall's recent push for increased coordination across the University's historically independent components.

"I think probably the biggest lesson was the importance of having around one table a team that understands all of those sometimes competing but important-to-integrate dictates." she said. "It was a very important process to take those lessons and bring them with me here."

Heenan also takes on the University's government relations portfolio at a time when Harvard been criticized on Capitol Hill and in the Massachusetts legislature for its $35 billion endowment, and most recently, for research conflicts of interest—two issues she said she would focus on this year.

Though she joins a sizable contingent of former Clinton administration officials at Harvard, and she doesn't appear likely to return to Washington in the event of a victory for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, as has been suggested of other Harvard officials.

Heenan backed Obama's primary opponent Senator Hillary Clinton, working briefly as her Rhode Island communications director in the weeks before that state's primary this winter.

"I'm a big believer in loyalty and the Clintons gave me a tremendous and life-changing opportunity in the early '90s," Heenan said. "I didn't hesitate to say I'd be helpful."

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.