Jeremy Weinstein Was Offered the Harvard Kennedy School Deanship. Who Is He?

Interim University President Alan M. Garber ’76 offered the Harvard Kennedy School deanship to Stanford University political scientist Jeremy M. Weinstein, concluding a seven-month search breaking a two-decade streak of having economists serve in the school’s top post.

Weinstein’s selection, which was first reported by The Crimson last week, comes as current HKS Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf prepares to step down at the end of the academic year, capping off a seven-year tenure plagued by controversy.

By offering Weinstein the Kennedy School deanship, Garber has selected one of Stanford’s top scholars on international development and a professor who is widely praised for his eagerness to mentor students and for his innovative teaching initiatives that integrate multiple disciplines.

Like the two previous deans of the Kennedy School — Elmendorf and David T. Ellwood ’75 — Weinstein has also spent considerable time working in Washington, most recently serving as a senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State from 2021 to 2022.

But unlike his predecessors, Weinstein is not an economist, a move that some HKS students and faculty called for to ensure disciplinary diversity at the school.

In interviews with The Crimson, Weinstein’s colleagues praised his commitment to supporting students as well as his ability to bridge the gap between different disciplines and between public policy and academia at large.

“There is no one else that I can think of who has done the quality of social science that Weinstein has done throughout his career and has served in senior positions in the US government,” said Jacob N. Shapiro, a public policy professor at Princeton University who Weinstein advised during his Ph.D.

“I literally cannot think of anyone,” he added.

‘The Real Deal’

During his two-decade tenure at Stanford, Weinstein has made a name for himself as a “brilliant” academic scholar working on the forefront of political science.

Shortly after earning both his master’s and doctoral degrees in political economy from Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Science in 2001 and 2003, respectively, Weinstein joined Stanford in 2004 as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and received tenure in 2009.

At Stanford, Weinstein — who served two terms as the director of the Center for African Studies — studies a broad range of topics, including civil wars and political violence, with a particular focus on political development in Africa.

In addition to his research, Weinstein founded and leads the Stanford Impact Labs, a $315 million initiative to fund scholars hoping to apply social science to create innovative solutions to pressing social issues.

Weinstein also co-founded and leads the Stanford Immigration Policy Lab, a project that aims to create evidence-based solutions to improve outcomes for immigrant groups and their host countries.

Jeremy M. Weinstein currently serves as a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. By Idil Tuysuzoglu

Shapiro said given the “brutally hard process” of making institutional changes in large universities, Weinstein’s success in co-founding and leading SIL suggests that he could bring innovative change to the Kennedy School.

“That skill that he has shown at Stanford with SIL seems like it could lead to really exciting things at a place with Harvard’s resources,” he said.

Weinstein has also left his mark on Stanford’s curriculum, bringing cutting-edge social science course offerings to the school.

In 2022, he founded a new major in data science and social systems, and in 2019, he co-founded and began teaching Computer Science 182, a popular undergraduate course that explores the intersection of philosophy, political science, and computer science.

Robert C. Reich, a political science professor at Stanford and co-founder of CS182, called Weinstein “methodologically cutting-edge.”

“He begins not from scholarly puzzles or gaps in the literature, but from identifying important social questions and striving to find the best mix of disciplinary approaches to answer them,” Reich wrote in a statement.

In addition to his academic accomplishments, Weinstein has worked on major foreign policy issues at the highest levels of government.

In 2009, Weinstein followed former President Barack Obama to the White House after serving as an adviser on Obama’s campaign. In Washington, he served on the National Security Council as Director for Development and Democracy from 2009 to 2011.

Weinstein returned to Stanford for two years, before taking another leave from the school to return to government. He never lost his connection to Harvard, serving as the chief of staff at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. from 2013 to 2014 and later as deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. from 2014 to 2015, when Samantha Power — a professor at HKS — served in the role.

Fotini Christia, a professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called Weinstein an “amazing intellectual” and “very motivated in terms of service.”

“He’s the real deal,” she added.

‘Bridging the Gap’

Several of Weinstein’s colleagues and students praised his expertise in both foreign policy and academia — a dual skill set that could prove valuable at the Kennedy School, which aims to both educate future global leaders and produce high-impact policy research.

Rachel Myrick, an assistant political science professor at Duke University who Weinstein advised, called Weinstein a “rare academic who is extremely well regarded as both a researcher in political science and a foreign policy practitioner” in a written statement.

Myrick added that Weinstein can effectively apply practical knowledge he gained from serving in government to his work and teaching at Stanford. She recounted how Weinstein used insights from his time at the U.N. to collaborate with Myrick on a project investigating U.S. strategies to secure the release of political prisoners abroad.

“His experiences working in government inform both his teaching and research,” Myrick wrote. “He cares deeply about solving real-world problems.”

According to colleagues and students, Weinstein has also proven capable of bridging the disciplinary divide between economists and political scientists — a tension laid bare at the Kennedy School as many professors called for the next dean to not be an economist.

Jeremy M. Weinstein has been offered the deanship of the Harvard Kennedy School. By Julian J. Giordano

Arabella K. Walley, a senior at Stanford who Weinstein is advising, said Weinstein has a talent of “bridging the gap” between academic fields.

Duke assistant political science professor Nick Eubank, who Weinstein advised for his PhD, said Weinstein has always focused less on “departmental status fights” and more on “understanding things in a way that’s going to be impactful for helping people.”

“If you’re gonna find somebody who’s going to be capable of working with both groups, it’s hard for me to imagine anyone better,” Eubank said.

This ability to navigate disciplinary divisions could be an asset for Weinstein as the Kennedy School’s next dean.

“When you think about what a school like the Kennedy School is, it's a place where you really have to work across social sciences,” said Justin R. Grimmer, a Stanford public policy professor.

“It’s not just like working within one field,” he added.

‘He Just Gets It’

Weinstein is known across Stanford’s campus for his dedication to helping students succeed, mentoring them on theses and career choices — a commitment that was apparent as early as his time studying at Harvard.

Christia said Weinstein was “an incredible mentor.”

“I remember reaching out to ask for advice,” she said. “He had reviewed my work when he was a junior professor at the time, and I was still a graduate student.”

Several current and former students said Weinstein’s dedication to mentorship continues today.

Grimmer, the Stanford political scientist, praised Weinstein for “day to day mentorship that he’s really known for within the department.”

“His graduate students have gone on to take very top positions at research universities,” he said. “That’s a testament to his careful attention to developing them as scholars, working with them on their theses.”

Several affiliates said Weinstein’s past experience in academia and government have proven particularly useful in guiding students through career choices.

“For my career, and first the short term of making this decision of leaving Stanford a little bit early to come to the White House, but then even bigger picture, just like thinking about the grand scheme of my career, he provided some insights that I felt like were just so helpful,” said Alison R. Cohen, a student whom Weinstein advised.

“And so in a lot of ways, I just feel he, I can’t explain it, he just gets it,” Cohen added. “He can meet you where you’re at, and then lift you up from there.”

Cohen cited one instance earlier this year when Weinstein invited Stanford undergraduates to a dinner for Shabbat at his home. Cohen, who attended the dinner, said many found the event a “great experience to have such an incredible professor welcome them in such a personal way.”

Those close to Weinstein said Stanford will miss him if he finalizes the move to Cambridge.

“It’s a loss to Stanford, if he jumps,” Eubank said. “But it's a hell of a win for Kennedy.”

Correction: April 19, 2024

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Weinstein received tenure in 2015. In fact, he received tenure in 2009.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.