Overseer Candidate Teresa Clarke Pledges to Reinforce Academic Core

Teresa Clarke ’84 said she would seek to strengthen Harvard’s academic core if elected to the Board of Overseers, framing the past two years as a period of “internal reflection” that the University must now consolidate into lasting practice.

Clarke, one of nine candidates nominated by the Harvard Alumni Association ahead of the April election, praised what she described as a renewed institutional commitment to open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and rigorous debate.

“The challenge is to ensure that those enduring qualities remain in place — that those enduring policies and norms that have been established over the last couple of years remain in place,” Clarke said.

An entrepreneur who holds three Harvard degrees, Clarke described a seat on the Board of Overseers as “an appropriate capstone” to decades of service to the University. While an undergraduate, she ran the Small Claims Advisory Service at the Phillips Brooks House Association, helping people navigate through the state’s legal system for small claims.

Since graduating, she has served on the Harvard Business School Alumni Association Board, the Episopal Chaplaincy at Harvard, and currently advises the Business School on digital data and design initiatives.

In an interview, Clarke positioned herself as a candidate focused on long-term stewardship of the University amid a series of immediate challenges facing Harvard, including its standoff with the Trump administration.

Asked about the merits of a potential settlement with the White House, Clarke said she would support decisions that preserve “Harvard’s most enduring qualities” and are “consistent with those institutional strengths.”

“Protecting academic excellence, I think, has to be at the forefront of any decision that you make, because that’s what makes Harvard, Harvard,” Clarke added.

Clarke expressed confidence in Harvard’s ability to weather potential financial strain, suggesting the University could draw on philanthropic partnerships and the scientific field while continuing to rely on its donor base.

“It is a concern in terms of federal funding and the need to replace federal funding. But I believe that this institution knows how to make that happen,” Clarke said. “That’s a storm that Harvard knows how to weather particularly well.”

While Clarke defended the continued importance of diversity at Harvard — a flashpoint amid pressure from the current White House — she said she was wary of inclusion “becoming a substitute” for academic excellence.

“What matters is ensuring that diversity and belonging are grounded in academic excellence and shared standards and not separated from those concepts,” Clarke said.

Clarke spent two decades at Goldman Sachs, where she became the first Black woman to serve as managing director of the investment banking division. In 2010, she left the firm to launch Africa.com, a digital media company that reports on business, politics, and economic development in Africa.

Darren Walker, the former president of the Ford Foundation, worked with Clarke as she explored investments in Africa and described her as an “extraordinary leader.”

“I think it was very courageous and bold to leave Goldman and to pursue her passion and her belief in Africa as a continent of opportunity, and to dedicate herself to proving the thesis that Africa is a continent of richness and opportunity,” Walker said.

Harvard Law School professor David Wilkins, a longtime collaborator of Clarke’s, called her “one of the most knowledgeable people I know about that part of the world.”

Since founding Africa.com, Clarke has emerged as a prominent voice on African economic development. In 2014, she was appointed to then-President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa by Harvard Corporation senior fellow Penny Pritzker, then-U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

Walker said that Clarke’s experience across the private and public sectors, both domestically and internationally, would serve her well in Harvard leadership.

“She is thoughtful, she is gracious, she is patient,” Walker said. “She’s a person who gives space to others, to be heard, and I think she’s an active listener.”

Wilkins echoed that assessment, describing Clarke as someone who tries to “lead by listening” rather than by force.

“When there are so many forces trying to tear us apart, and so many pressures on the university and so many legitimate concerns and points of view,” Wilkins said, “we need someone who comes at leadership from this perspective of empathetic listening.”

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.