Update on Search for New Provost
April 3, 2020
Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,
Today, I am writing with some updates on the search for Brandeis' next provost.
As you know, earlier this year I sent a message announcing that Lisa Lynch intended to step down from her role as provost and executive vice president of academic affairs at the end of the 2019-20 academic year.
In the face of the ongoing public health and economic crises, however, Lisa has generously agreed to stay on as Brandeis' provost through December 2020. In these challenging times, we will benefit significantly from her institutional knowledge and leadership. I am personally grateful to her for agreeing to continue as provost through the end of the calendar year, and I hope that you will join me in thanking Lisa for her loyalty and commitment to Brandeis.
We will conduct a comprehensive search to identify our next provost, whose term will begin after the new year, and nominations will be sought for both internal and external candidates. I am pleased to announce that Susan Birren, the Zalman Abraham Kekst Chair in Neuroscience and former dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, has agreed to serve as the chair of the search committee that will advise me on the appointment. Susan will be joined on the committee by several faculty and staff members, in addition to one member of the Brandeis Board of Trustees. The full list of committee members is as follows:
- Susan Birren, committee chair, the Zalman Abraham Kekst Chair in Neuroscience
- Eva Bellin, the Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics in the Department of Politics and the Crown Center for Middle East Studies
- Carole Carlson, senior lecturer and MBA program director in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management
- Peter Kalb, the Cynthia L. and Theodore S. Berenson Associate Professor of Contemporary Art
- Isaac Krauss, associate professor of chemistry
- Maria Madison, associate dean for equity, inclusion, and diversity in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management
- Raymond Ou, vice provost of student affairs
- Carol Saivetz, trustee; senior adviser, MIT Security Studies Program
- Gary Samore, professor of the practice of politics and the Crown Family Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies
- Harleen Singh, associate professor of literature and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies
- Stewart Uretsky, executive vice president for finance and administration
- Grace Zimmerman, professor of the practice of marketing in Brandeis International Business School
- William O’Reilly, ex officio, chief of staff and senior adviser to the president
The search for our next provost will launch soon. The committee will be assisted by the search firm Isaacson Miller (IM), which has significant expertise in higher education searches. The IM team will be led by Peter Lange, provost emeritus of Duke University, and Katie Rockman, a partner at the firm. I have asked the search committee to provide me with a list of 3 to 5 candidates for the position, each of whom the committee believes would serve as an effective provost for Brandeis.
As the work of the search committee unfolds, input from faculty, staff, and students will be essential. The search committee will establish opportunities for a variety of constituencies across the campus to meet with and provide advice to the search committee and its consultants. We will share more information on these opportunities soon.
I want to thank Professor Birren and all of the members of the search committee for providing a great service to Brandeis.
Sincerely,
Ron