Nancy Coleman Dean Harvard Continuing Education

A new leader for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ large extension operation

Portrait photograph of Nancy Coleman

Nancy Coleman 
Photograph by Michelle Dunham Photography

Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) dean Claudine Gay today announced that Nancy Coleman, currently associate provost and director of strategic growth initiatives at Wellesley College, will become dean of the Division of Continuing Education (DCE, the Harvard extension school) effective July 13.

Coleman succeeds Huntington D. Lambert, who assumed the post in 2013 and led a period of enormous growth—particularly online—before retiring at the end of last year. Beyond educating thousands of extension students, the division has been an important financial resource for FAS, generating unrestricted cash to support the faculty’s academic mission; the constraints on its in-person classes, and on the campus-based components of its online offerings, have figured in FAS’s pandemic-related financial challenges, along with those facing other University extension- and continuing-education operations.

In her announcement, Gay noted that dean-designate Coleman “led an era of innovation for Wellesley Extended,” the unit that includes summer programs, online learning, and professional education. Before arriving at Wellesley in 2016, she served as vice president of global academic services at Keypath Education and, previously, as director of distance education at Boston University, where she oversaw all online degrees and certificates. A graduate of Stonehill College, Coleman earned an M.B.A. from Boston University’s Questrom School of Management and an Ed.D. at George Washington University.

Read more articles by John S. Rosenberg

You might also like

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Rule Changes Teaching Awards

Honors teaching excellence, and the memory of Nathan Glazer, in last regular meeting of the academic year

Making the 2020 Election Call

The AP’s Michael Fabiano on the 2020 election

An Online Extension School Course for High-school Students

Literature professor Elisa New spearheads an online poetry course for talented students in underserved high schools.

Most popular

Harvard’s Class of 2029 Reflects Shifts in Racial Makeup After Affirmative Action Ends

International students continue to enroll amid political uncertainty; mandatory SATs lead to a drop in applications.

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Harvard’s Endowment, Donations Rise—but the University Runs a Deficit

The annual financial report signals severe challenges to come.

Explore More From Current Issue

Students in purple jackets seated on chairs, facing away in a grassy area.

A New Prescription for Youth Mental Health

Kenyan entrepreneur Tom Osborn ’20 reimagines care for a global crisis.

People gather near the John Harvard Statue in front of University Hall surrounded by autumn trees.

A Changed Harvard Faces the Future

After a tense summer—and with no Trump settlement in sight—the University continues to adapt. 

Wolfram Schlenker wearing a suit sitting outdoors, smiling, with trees and a building in the background.

Harvard Economist Wolfram Schlenker Is Tackling Climate Change

How extreme heat affects our land—and our food supply