Tomiko Brown-Nagin to Leave Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Stanford Deanship

Tomiko Brown-Nagin will step down as dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute to lead Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, Stanford announced Wednesday afternoon.

Brown-Nagin will assume the Stanford deanship at the start of the upcoming academic year. She has led Radcliffe since 2018, overseeing an expansion of the institute’s fellowship programs and taking on several high-profile University-wide assignments.

At Stanford, Brown-Nagin will succeed Dan Schwartz, who is set to step down Sept. 1 after 11 years as dean. Schwartz will return to teaching and research while continuing to lead the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, a University-wide initiative housed within the education school.

Stanford Provost Jenny Martinez wrote in a statement that Brown-Nagin’s “integrative approach” would be a boon to the school as it tries to foster “ties across the university.”

“Brown-Nagin brings a deep record of interdisciplinary scholarship, strong experience leading organizations and institutional initiatives, and both a professional record and personal style of working with people from varied disciplines and perspectives to advance common goals,” Martinez wrote.

Brown-Nagin’s departure brings an end to an eight-year tenure at the helm of Radcliffe, Harvard’s interdisciplinary institute for advanced study. Harvard did not immediately announce who would succeed her.

In a Wednesday email announcing her departure to Radcliffe affiliates, Brown-Nagin reflected on her tenure as dean and thanked members of the community who have supported the institute and its mission.

“Difficult as it is to leave Radcliffe—and Harvard—I could not decline the invitation to lead Stanford’s Graduate School of Education,” she wrote. “In this role, I will be in a position to help strengthen American education and its unique power to expand opportunity.

A legal historian and constitutional law scholar, Brown-Nagin joined Harvard’s faculty in 2012 and holds appointments at Harvard Law School and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Her influence at Harvard has extended well beyond Radcliffe.

Brown-Nagin led the committee behind the University’s legacy of slavery initiative and helped produce a report documenting Harvard’s ties to slavery and its role in building the institution.

Brown-Nagin later co-chaired the University’s Working Group on Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue, convened amid mounting concerns that students and faculty were reluctant to discuss controversial subjects on campus. The group recommended the University-wide adoption of a non-attribution policy for discussion and a review of Harvard’s discrimination, bullying, and harassment policies.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 praised Brown-Nagin’s “attentive, ambitious work” in a Wednesday email to affiliates following the announcement.

“I know that I am one among many, throughout the University and elsewhere, who are deeply grateful for her efforts,” Garber wrote

This is a developing story and will be updated.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

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