Massachusetts: Harvard University has announced that Ms. Claudine Gay will become the 30th president of the University, making her the first Black person and the second woman to lead the Ivy League school.
Ms. Gay, who is currently a democracy scholar and a dean at the university, will replace Mr. Lawrence Bacow to become the new president.
She is a terrific academic leader with a keen mind, great leadership and communication skills, excellent judgment, and a basic decency and kindness that will serve Harvard well.
Mr. Bacow remarked.
Ms. Gay joined Harvard in 2006 as a professor of government as well as African and African American studies and has dealt with a variety of issues, including how a range of social and economic factors shape political views and voting.
Ms. Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation and chair of Harvard’s Presidential Search Committee commented that “Claudine is a remarkable leader who is profoundly devoted to sustaining and enhancing Harvard’s academic excellence, to championing both the value and the values of higher education and research, to expanding opportunity, and to strengthening Harvard as a fount of ideas and a force for good in the world.”
Ms. Gay called for greater cooperation among schools at Harvard in her acceptance speech and remarked that the university should be more engaged with the world to “bring bold, brave, and pioneering thinking to our greatest challenges.”
With the new appointment, women will outnumber men as chiefs of the eight Ivy League schools. Ms. Gay will be the only Black president currently in the Ivy League and the second Black woman ever, following Mr. Ruth Simmons, who led Brown University from 2001 to 2012.