NNPA NEWSWIRE — “All of us on the search committee are excited about her bringing her high aspirations and interdisciplinary outlook across the Yard from University Hall to Massachusetts Hall,” Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation and chair of Harvard’s presidential search committee, told the Harvard Gazette. “We are sure Claudine will be a thoughtful, principled, and inspiring president for all of Harvard, committed to ensuring the success of each of our distinct Schools while also encouraging innovative links among them.”

By Stacy M. Brown

Stacy Brown, Chief National Reporter for NNPA Newswire

Dr. Claudine Gay, head of Harvard’s School of Arts and Sciences, is only the second woman in the institution’s history to serve as president.

The institution was established in 1636.

Dr. Gay will be appointed in July 2023.

“Claudine is a remarkable leader who is profoundly committed to sustaining and enhancing Harvard’s academic excellence, to championing both the value and values of higher education and research, to expanding opportunity, and to strengthening Harvard as a fount of ideas and a force for good in the world,” Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation and chair of Harvard’s presidential search committee, said in a statement to the Harvard Gazette.

“As the Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 2018, and previously as dean of social science, Claudine has brought to her roles a rare blend of incisiveness and inclusiveness, intellectual range and strategic savvy, institutional ambition and personal humility, a respect for enduring ideals, and a talent for catalysing change. She is deeply committed to free research and speech, as well as a profound respect for the diverse viewpoints and perspectives that are the lifeblood of a university community.

“As her many fans know, Claudine consults broadly; hears carefully; thinks rigorously and imaginatively; encourages cooperation and resists complacency; and acts with passion and purpose,” Pritzker added.

“All of us on the search committee are excited by the possibility of her bringing her lofty goals and interdisciplinary perspective across the Yard from University Hall to Massachusetts Hall. We are sure that Claudine will be a thoughtful, principled, and inspiring president for all of Harvard, committed to ensuring the success of each of our distinct Schools while also encouraging innovative links between them. She is someone who is dedicated to proving the value of curiosity-driven learning. And she is someone who is anxious to integrate and elevate Harvard’s attempts to solve difficult global problems across the arts, sciences, and professions.”

Gay has been the Edgerley Family Dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) since 2018, according to the Gazette. The FAS is the University’s largest and most academically diverse faculty, spanning the biological and physical sciences and engineering, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts. As dean, she has led efforts to increase student access and opportunity, to promote excellence and innovation in teaching and research, to improve aspects of academic culture, and to bring new emphasis and energy to areas such as quantum science and engineering, climate change, ethnicity, indigeneity, and migration, and the humanities. She successfully guided FAS through the COVID pandemic, consistently and effectively balancing the dual objectives of community health and scholastic continuity and advancement.

Despite the crisis’s disruptive effects, the school newspaper reported that she has also launched and led an ambitious, inclusive, and faculty-driven strategic planning process, with the goal of taking a fresh look at fundamental aspects of academic structures, resources, and operations in FAS and advancing academic excellence in the years ahead. “I am humbled by the governing bodies’ trust in me and by the possibility of succeeding President Bacow as leader of this extraordinary institution,” Gay said.

“Over the last five years, it has been a pleasure to collaborate with Larry. He has demonstrated to me that leadership is not about one individual. It’s about all of us going forward together, and that’s a lesson I’ll carry with me on my next adventure.”