Bonnie Talbert and David Elmer ’98 Named Eliot House Faculty Deans

Updated: December 13, 2023, at 11:34 p.m.

Harvard faculty Bonnie Talbert and David F. Elmer ’98 will serve as the next faculty deans of Eliot House, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana announced in an email to Eliot House affiliates Wednesday afternoon.

Talbert, the interim director of the Harvard College Women’s Center and a lecturer in Social Studies, and her husband Elmer, who chairs the Classics Department, will step into their roles beginning July 1.

They will succeed outgoing faculty deans Kevin J. Madigan and Stephanie A. Paulsell, who announced their departure from the role last September after serving for four years. Talbert and Elmer will bring with them their two children, Rosie and Nat, and a dog named Noodle.

“Bonnie and David are cherished, longstanding members of the Harvard community,” Khurana wrote in the email. “Over the course of the search for new Faculty Deans, I have gotten to know them and their family even better.”

In a statement to the Harvard Gazette, a University-run publication, Talbert and Elmer said they “look forward to immersing ourselves wholly and enthusiastically in the life of the House.”

“We commit to leading collaboratively and with empathy, and to working as hard as we can to foster a caring, supportive community in which all Eliotites can flourish,” they added.

In an interview with The Crimson, Elmer emphasized that he and Talbert will focus on maintaining the House community while listening to student needs.

“Eliot House has to remain a really strong, supportive, inclusive community,” Elmer said. “We intend, even before we begin in July, to be a presence in Eliot House, to get to know as many students as possible, to listen to members of the community and to understand what they feel the priorities are.”

Elmer added that a longer-term goal will be managing the upcoming renewal of Eliot while ensuring that displaced students maintain a strong sense of belonging — especially those who will graduate before the renovated House is unveiled.

“We really want to help them to feel part of this process and involved and invested,” Elmer said.

Talbert joined Harvard in 2009 after finishing her Ph.D. at Columbia. In the time since, she has taught courses through the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship, a first-year seminar, and introductory course Social Studies 10, among others.

Outside of Harvard, Talbert also serves as a member of the Cambridge Peace Commission.

Elmer, a former radio jazz DJ at Harvard Radio Broadcasting, better known as WHRB, has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 2007. He became chair of the Classics Department in 2021.

As department chair, Elmer has been at the forefront of developing a more “global and inclusive vision for the study of Greco-Roman antiquity,” according to Khurana. He also currently serves as course head of popular freshman writing course Humanities 10.

The search process, which played out through the fall semester, consisted of student nominations and rounds of deliberation by a search advisory committee assembled by Khurana, who made the final decision.

Talbert and Elmer come in as the eighth new pair of faculty deans appointed across the College since 2020. Faculty deans are appointed for renewable, five-year terms.