Harris

David R. Harris, Cornell professor of sociology and senior associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will be Tufts University's next provost and senior vice president, effective July 1.

As Tufts' chief academic officer, Harris will be responsible for schools on three Massachusetts campuses including a medical school and multiple cross-school programs, centers and institutes.

"I'm grateful for the chance [at Cornell] to do things I never imagined doing, and for the great people I've learned from, and to take what I've learned and apply that at Tufts and help it become a greater institution than it is already," Harris said.

"David has been a spectacular asset to the college, and he's made tremendous contributions to Cornell," said Peter Lepage, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "Although we're thrilled for David, we're sorry to be losing him."

Harris' Cornell career has been marked by several firsts and a succession of leadership roles since he joined the faculty in 2003.

He served as the first Robert S. Harrison Executive Director of the Institute for the Social Sciences (ISS) at Cornell from 2004 to 2007, and in 2005 he was named Cornell's first vice provost for social sciences.

Under his directorship the ISS launched several theme projects, seeded individual research projects, began a successful effort to attract external funding and added new interdisciplinary courses to the curriculum.

As vice provost, Harris worked with faculty and deans from across campus to enhance social sciences, faculty recruitment, retention and resources, and undergraduate and graduate learning and research. He also led a project examining challenges to diversity in higher education and recommended ways to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in college achievement.

Harris was appointed to the new position of deputy provost in August 2007, and he served as interim provost in 2008 when then-Provost Carolyn Martin left to become chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also served as interim senior vice provost for research.

As deputy provost from 2007 to 2010, he was involved in admissions, financial aid, social sciences and diversity, and had roles in fundraising and in the Reimagining Cornell financial and administrative restructuring effort.

In March 2010, Harris took a leave of absence to join President Barack Obama's administration as deputy assistant secretary for human services policy in the Department of Health and Human Services. When he returned to Cornell in summer 2011, he was named to the associate dean's position.

His research as a social scientist focuses on race and ethnicity, inequality, stratification and public policy. He is co-editor of "The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities Exist" (2008) and the author of numerous journal articles.

Harris will complete a one-year term June 30 as interim co-director (with Elizabeth Adkins-Regan) of the Africana Studies and Research Center. A search for a new director is ongoing.

Before joining Cornell, Harris was an assistant professor and associate chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan.

Harris has a B.S. in human development and social policy (1991) and a Ph.D. in sociology (1997), all from Northwestern University. He and his wife, Anne, have three daughters, ages 14, 12 and 1.