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

The University will compensate families of those whose remains were sold and establish a scholarship to honor anatomical donors.

After a final round of layoffs, University leaders say 165 staff jobs were eliminated across the division.

A roundup of University news from the summer of 2026

Most popular

In 2004, a frenzy spread across Harvard Yard in days. Four billion users later, we are only just catching up.

Why Taxi Drivers Don’t Die of Alzheimer’s

Explaining taxi and ambulance drivers’ protection against Alzheimer’s disease.

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Explore More From Current Issue

Decorative wrought iron gate framed by leafy branches, captured in sepia tones.

Former Indiana University president Thomas Ehrlich looks back on curriculum, co-education, and other major trends.

Colorful cartoon animals, including dogs, cows, rabbits, and a fence, on a pink background.

Inseparable cows, big dogs fostering a tiny kitten, and a show beagle’s second act

A football player in a white jersey evades a defender in a green uniform on the field.

Despite personnel losses, Crimson captain Xaviah Bascon is upbeat about the 2026 season.