Jorge Chavarro to serve as Dean for Academic Affairs

To the Harvard Chan community,

I’m thrilled to announce that Jorge E. Chavarro, professor of nutrition and epidemiology, will serve as our next dean for academic affairs, effective Sept. 1.

Jorge has been a valued member of our community for more than two decades. When he arrived as a master’s student in 2002, his plan was to stay for just a year, then return to practicing medicine. It is our good fortune that Jorge found public health fascinating and decided to remain here, earning his doctorate, working as a postdoctoral fellow, and then joining our faculty.

At every step, Jorge has demonstrated a deep commitment to rigorous science, excellent teaching, and public health impact. He has also built an impressive track record of creating collaborative networks within our School, across Harvard, and around the world. His work and collegial leadership exemplify the best of our community.

In his new role, Jorge will draw on all these skills. He will serve as an ambassador for the school’s mission, helping to forge and steward strategic alliances within and outside Harvard to amplify our research impact and expand our training capacity. He will support our initiatives to engage with both the private sector and with communities around the world, ensuring that our collaborations uphold the highest ethical standards and deliver sustainable impact.

Jorge will also oversee faculty affairs, research strategy and compliance, and the School’s PhD programs. In addition, he will partner with Senior Associate Dean for Educational Programs Nancy Turnbull and Vice Dean for Non-Degree Education and Innovation Rifat Atun to support our other degree, non-degree, and executive education programs.

Among his many contributions to public health, Jorge has been a driving force behind the Nurses’ Health Study 3, an open, web-based cohort that so far has enrolled more than 50,000 young women and expands the scope of the original Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II. These studies have yielded a steady stream of actionable insights on how diet and behavior affect health, including studies showing the extent to which adverse reproductive outcomes are preventable.

Jorge has also been deeply involved in the civic life of our School and the University. He co-chaired the Faculty Council in 2019-20 and has served on the Standing Committee on Appointments, Reappointments, and Promotions (SCARP), the Committee for Educational Policy, and the Working Group on Standards and Principles for Review of Instructors. A dedicated and talented mentor, Jorge has also served for years as a faculty advisor to the Yerby Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

At the University level, Jorge served on the Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue Working Group, which produced important recommendations to nurture curiosity, humility, empathy, and critical thinking across Harvard. Earlier this year, President Alan Garber tapped Jorge as one of 16 professors to advise him on University-wide decisions as members of a new Faculty Advisory Council.

He has also served for more than a decade on National Institutes of Health study sections to evaluate grant proposals, most recently as chair of the Pregnancy and Neonatology Study Section.

To all his roles, Jorge brings a thoughtful, measured, and strategic approach. I’m looking forward to his voice on my senior leadership team as we address the School’s financial challenges and develop strategies to reinforce our excellence in research and education and expand our impact on the world.

Please join me in congratulating Jorge on this new role.

Best,

Andrea

Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD
Dean of the Faculty