Professors Named to GSE Search Advisory Committee

A group of professors from across the University is leading the search for a successor for James E. Ryan, the Dean of the Graduate School of Education.

Ryan announced earlier this year that he would depart the school after four years in the post to become the president of the University of Virginia. He joins University President Drew G. Faust and Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Lizabeth A. Cohen, both of whom will also step down at the end of the academic year.

Faust named the Education School search committee members, a “group of faculty from within the Ed School and from related Faculties,” in an email to the school’s affiliates on October 11. The committee, whose members hail from a wide range of Harvard’s twelve schools, will work with Faust and University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 as an advisory group for the search.

In the email, Faust said that she would be soliciting advice through a designated email address from the Education School community for multiple aspects of the search.

“I would welcome your thoughts on the School’s major opportunities and challenges in the years ahead. In addition, I would be grateful for observations on the key qualities to seek in the School’s next dean, as well as nominations of individuals—both from within and beyond Harvard—whom we might consider,” Faust said.

She also thanked Ryan for his tenure.

“I am grateful to Jim for his four years of inspired leadership during a period of expansion and transformation in the School’s history, as well as for the efforts he will make during the balance of this year,” she said.

The search committee’s full composition is as follows: Kennedy School professor Christopher Avery; Law School and History professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin; Graduate School of Education School and Kennedy School professor David J. Deming; GSE professor Roberto Gonzales; GSE professor Monica C. Higgins; GSE professor Nancy Hill; GSE School professor Andrew D. Ho; GSE professor Deborah Jewell-Sherman; HKS School and Business School professor Herman B. “Dutch” Leonard; GSE School professor and Academic Dean Nonie K. Lesaux; Medical School, GSE, and School of Public Health professor Charles A. Nelson; GSE senior lecturer Mandy Savitz-Romer; Sociology professor Mario L. Small; and HBS professor Michael Tushman.

Members of the search committee declined to comment.

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