Three Overseers Named to Search Committee

The Corporation meets in Loeb House. By Megan M. Ross

President of the Board of Overseers Scott A. Abell ’72, vice chair of the executive committee Tracy P. Palandjian ’93, and Susan L. Carney ’73, a federal appellate judge, will join the twelve members of the Harvard Corporation in the search for Harvard’s next president.

William F. Lee ’72, Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, announced the full composition of the presidential search committee—including the three previously unnamed members from the Board of Overseers—and issued an open call for suggestions for the search to replace outgoing University President Drew G. Faust in an email Tuesday to Harvard affiliates. Past presidential searches have also been led by the Corporation in conjunction with three Overseers.

In the email Tuesday, Lee also solicited suggestion for “individuals you believe warrant serious consideration as possible candidates,” and listed a series of criteria the selection committee is considering.

“We will be seeking a person of high intellectual distinction, with proven qualities of leadership, a devotion to excellence in education and research, a capacity to guide a complex institution through times of change, a commitment to advance progress and collaboration across a wide span of academic domains, and a dedication to the ideals and values central to a community of learning,” he wrote.

Lee had previously outlined many of these criteria in an interview with the University-run Harvard Gazette about a week after University President Drew G. Faust announced she would step down in June 2018.

In the email, the selection committee will launch advisory councils for faculty, staff, and students to “reach out broadly to benefit from both general advice and specific nominations,” Lee wrote.

He asked that suggestions be emailed to psearch@harvard.edu or mailed to the Corporation’s meeting location, Loeb House in Harvard Yard.