Harvard begins search for new dean of graduate school of education

Harvard president appoints advisory committee.

President Drew Faust has established the advisory committee for the search to identify the successor to Kathleen McCartney, departing dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). McCartney will become president of Smith College on July 1.

According to Faust’s announcement, the committee comprises nine HGSE senior faculty members (Monica Higgins, Nancy Hill, Thomas Kane, Robert Kegan, Nonie Lesaux, Bridget Terry Long, Richard Murnane, Jack Shonkoff, and Hiro Yoshikawa) and professors from other schools with perspectives on HGSE’s work and mission: Christopher Avery (Kennedy School), Amy Edmondson (Business School), Jennifer Hochschild (Faculty of Arts and Sciences, department of government), Lawrence Katz (FAS, department of economics), and Herman (Dutch) Leonard (Business School/Kennedy School). This multidisciplinary, multischool perspective fits well with McCartney’s overhaul of HGSE’s academic doctoral program along three tracks (human development; culture, society, and institutions; and policy and program evaluation) closely aligned with other fields (respectively: psychology, sociology, and economics).

Faust wrote that she and University provost Alan Garber would reach out to faculty members, students, staff, alumni, and others to solicit information about HGSE’s challenges and opportunities, and to identify decanal candidates. Observations and nominations can be sent, in confidence, to gsesearch@harvard.edu.

You might also like

Harvard will rename the building following a $100 million gift from Stuart Zimmer ’91.

Pritzker Hall, designed for collaboration, should be complete in 2027.

The Goel Center in Allston will open for performances in the fall of 2026.

Most popular

An animal’s journey from grief to love shows how much humans need each other, too.

The former economics concentrator brings his talent for crunching numbers to netminding.

The retired government professor has been a rare conservative voice on campus for decades.

Explore More From Current Issue

Racing driver gives a thumbs up from inside a car, wearing a helmet and safety gear.

Harvard graduate and NASCAR racer Patrick Staropoli on pedals, attention, and fearlessness.

Star-filled night sky with the Milky Way arching over a rocky silhouette.

There’s a growing movement to curb light pollution. It starts on your front porch.

A blue refrigerator covered with animal pictures, notes, and drawings, surrounded by greenery.

An animal’s journey from grief to love shows how much humans need each other, too.