Jane Kim stepping down as Dean for Academic Affairs

To the Harvard Chan community:

I am writing to let you know that Jane Kim will step down as dean for academic affairs on Sept. 1, after a tremendously successful 5½ years in leadership. Jane will remain on our faculty as K.T. Li Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management and the Center for Health Decision Science.

Jane began her tenure as academic dean in February 2020—one month before Harvard Chan School went into COVID lockdown. She co-led our pandemic response, notably our rapid transition to online learning, and later helped guide our return-to-work policies.

Throughout her time in this role, Jane has championed our academic mission, overseeing faculty affairs, education, research strategy, and research compliance. She has reinvigorated mentoring programs for early career researchers and improved our recruitment, appointment, and review processes for all academic appointees. She guided the school through a research optimization process and has played a key role in educational planning and strategy. More recently, I am grateful to Jane for her leadership in helping our school respond to the federal actions related to higher education. She has worked closely with department chairs to plan research and educational priorities in a time of grant terminations and severe resource constraints.

As many of you know, Jane served as interim dean of the faculty for the six months before my appointment, from July through December 2023. During that time, she focused on strengthening our community, launching important initiatives including the Principles of Citizenship, Community Day of Service, and Crossroads Dinners, as well as efforts to reinforce academic freedom.

In addition to her administrative leadership duties, Jane has continued to lead research consortia focused on decision science and cancer prevention. Her team’s work has informed national and international guidelines on HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening, working with the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Personally, I am truly grateful to Jane for generously sharing her wisdom and advice with me during the past year and a half. Jane has a deep knowledge of and true commitment to everyone who works and studies at Harvard Chan School. She has been a steady presence through turbulent times and has helped us shape important decisions.

I expect to name a new academic dean in the coming weeks. Jane has kindly agreed to remain on hand to support the transition through the fall semester. She plans to take a sabbatical in 2026, after which she will return to teaching and research. 

Please join me in thanking Jane for her outstanding and ongoing service to Harvard Chan School.

Best,

Andrea

Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD
Dean of the Faculty