Following a meeting of the governing boards earlier today, my colleagues and I are very pleased to let you know that Alan Garber, our interim president since January, will serve as president of the University through the end of the 2026-27 academic year. We plan to launch a full-scale search for his eventual successor in the late spring or summer of 2026.
After serving with distinction as Harvard’s provost for more than twelve years, Alan has done an outstanding job leading Harvard through extraordinary challenges since taking on his interim presidential duties seven months ago. We have asked him to hold the title of president, not just interim president, both to recognize his distinguished service to the University and to underscore our belief that this is a time not merely for steady stewardship but for active, engaged leadership.
Over the last seven months, and for years before that, Alan has led with a deep concern for all members of the Harvard community, a strong devotion to enduring university ideals, and a paramount commitment to academic excellence. At an especially demanding moment for higher education, Harvard is very fortunate to benefit from his intellectual acumen and breadth of interests, his integrity and fair-mindedness, his equanimity and empathy, his decades-long devotion to the University, his extensive knowledge of its people and parts, and his ardent belief in the power of higher education and research—and their potential to improve the lives of people and communities near and far. His time in Mass Hall has demonstrated his clear-eyed determination both to help the University chart a course through troubled waters and to affirm the primacy of the teaching, learning, and research at Harvard’s heart.
In conversations with many people across our community and beyond during the past weeks and months—including especially helpful recent consultations with each of the deans as well as an array of faculty and alumni leaders from the various schools—we have consistently heard praise for Alan’s qualities and how his leadership meets the current moment. People have highlighted his thoughtful and balanced judgment, his openness to different points of view, his even temperament in turbulent times, his concern for student well-being, his commitment to academic freedom and constructive dialogue, his recognition of diversity and inclusion as integral elements of academic excellence, his appetite for innovation, and his constant focus on the best interests of Harvard as a whole. Our recent consultations have strongly underscored the high regard in which Alan is held by a broad range of people who have watched him work and come to appreciate his strengths.
Alan is not only an admired academic leader but also a scholar and educator of exceptional reach. After graduating from Harvard College summa cum laude, he earned a PhD in Economics from Harvard and an MD with research honors from Stanford University. A member of the Stanford faculty for 25 years, he became a professor of medicine, economics, and health policy, and was founding director of Stanford’s Center for Health Policy and its Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, while also practicing as a physician in Palo Alto. Since returning to Harvard in 2011 to serve as provost, he has held faculty appointments in Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, and the Economics Department in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. As the longest-serving provost in Harvard’s history, responsible for overseeing academic activities throughout the institution and working to foster new connections across the schools, he gained singular insight into the full span of opportunities and challenges facing the University.
As noted, Alan will carry forward as president through the 2026-27 academic year and we will launch a full and wide-ranging search for his successor in the late spring or summer of 2026. We believe this plan will give Alan and his leadership team the opportunity to sustain and build momentum on a range of priorities and initiatives. It will also provide an ample interval for those of us on the Corporation to reflect, in consultation with others, on how best to approach the future presidential search, including how to ensure robust input from across Harvard and beyond.
As we all know, these remain challenging times. We have experienced significant divisions and pointed questions. We have hard work still ahead to reaffirm our core academic values and our collective focus on learning and scholarship. We must continue working to restore bonds of trust, to bridge divides, to combat forms of invidious hate and bias, and to foster a secure campus climate conducive to dialogue across differences. No less, we have more work ahead to amplify higher education’s contributions to the wider world and to shine light on why they matter.
Alan’s talents and experience position him well to guide us in this vital work. Along with my colleagues on the governing boards, I hope you will offer him your concerted support, and I thank all of you—faculty, students, staff, alumni, and friends—for all you do for Harvard.
Sincerely,
Penny Pritzker
Senior Fellow, Harvard Corporation