fb-pixelHarvard Kennedy School dean to step down - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Harvard Kennedy School dean to step down

The dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School has announced he will step down from his post at the end of the 2014-2015 academic year, then take a sabbatical in 2015-2016 before returning to teaching and other faculty work, the university said.

David Ellwood has been dean for a decade. He is the longest serving dean at Harvard. Drew Faust, the university president, said in a statement that he was a “dean among deans, bringing an always thoughtful and nuanced perspective to hard institutional questions.”

Ellwood said he was honored to serve as dean of the school during “an extremely exciting and transformative period of our history.”

Advertisement



“What I love most about the School is its clear mission to make the world a better place, both by educating exceptional public leaders and creating innovative ideas to solve critical public problems. It is an incredible honor to work with such amazing people so committed to a better future,” Ellwood said in the statement.

Ellwood first joined the Kennedy School faculty in 1980. He has also served as an assistant secretary in the US Department of Health and Human Services, where he co-chaired President Clinton’s Working Group on Welfare Reform, Family Support and Independence, the statement said.