Claudine Gay was announced to become the 30th president of Harvard University on Thursday, 15th of December 2022. This would make her the first black president, and the second female president of the school.
Claudine Gay is the daughter of Haitian immigrants and she entered Harvard as a Professor in African and African American studies. She was appointed Dean of Social Sciences in 2015, and in 2018, she became the Edgerley Family Dean of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Her work focuses on political participation in America and the social and economic factors that mold political sentiments and voting. She has been regarded by her peers as a ‘remarkable academic leader’ with basic decency and devotion to ‘sustaining and enhancing Harvard’s academic excellence’.
In the Harvard article that announced her appointment, Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation and chair of Harvard’s presidential search committee says, “For all her professional accomplishments, even more impressive are Claudine’s personal qualities — her quality and clarity of mind, her broad curiosity about fields beyond her own, her integrity and fair-mindedness, and her dedication to creating opportunities for others. She will be a great Harvard president in no small part because she is such a good person”
In her acceptance speech, Claudine shares, “With the strength of this extraordinary institution behind us, we enter a moment of possibility, one that calls for deeper collaboration across the University, across all of our remarkable Schools”
Claudine’s role as the president of Harvard University starts on July 1.
