The evergreen book of blacks making positively reverberating impacts across the globe is again appreciated as Claudine Gay has been selected as Harvard University’s 30th president, making her the first Black person and the second woman to lead the Ivy League school.
Remarkably, Gay, who is currently a dean at the university and a democracy scholar, was elected to the presidency by the Harvard Corporation, the university’s principal governing board.
The history maker will become president on 1 July, replacing Lawrence Bacow, who is stepping down to spend more time with his family.
According to the university’s Harvard Gazette, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, Gay graduated from Stanford and then earned her PhD in government at Harvard in 1998, winning the Toppan Prize for best dissertation in political science.
She is regarded as a leading voice on the issue of American political participation. It could be recalled that in 2006, she joined Harvard as a professor of government and of African and African American studies and has since explored a variety of issues, including how a range of social and economic factors shape political views and voting.
Also, Gay is the founding chair of Harvard’s inequality in America initiative, which studies issues like the effects of child poverty and deprivation on educational opportunity and American inequality from a global perspective.
Harping on the heroic feat in a video posted by the university, Gay said she was “humbled” to be elected, and thanked Bacow for his guidance.
She continued that “It has been a privilege to work with Larry over the last five years. He has shown me that leadership isn’t about one person. It’s about all of us, moving forward together. And that’s a lesson I take with me into this next journey.”
“As I start my tenure, there’s so much more for me to discover about this institution that I love. And I’m looking forward to doing just that, with our whole community,” Gay added.
The history maker sued for greater collaboration among schools at Harvard and said there was an urgency for the university to be more engaged with the world and to “bring bold, brave and pioneering thinking to our greatest challenges”.
She said “The idea of the ‘ivory tower’ – that is the past, not the future of academia. We don’t exist outside of society but as part of it. That means that Harvard has a duty to lean in, engage and to be of service to the world.”
In a statement, Bascow said the university’s future is “very bright” with Gay at the helm.
“Claudine is a person of bedrock integrity. She will provide Harvard with the strong moral compass necessary to lead this great university. The search committee has made an inspired choice for our 30th president. Under Claudine Gay’s leadership, Harvard’s future is very bright,” the statement added.
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