Rifat Atun to serve as Dean for Education and Innovation

Dear Harvard Chan School community,

I’m delighted to announce that Rifat Atun, Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership and vice dean for non-degree education and innovation, will begin a new role as dean for education and innovation effective Aug. 1. This role reflects the critical importance of refining and enhancing our educational strategy and offerings to ensure our students develop the capacities needed to solve pressing public health challenges in the course of their careers.

In this position, Rifat will provide strategic and operational leadership across the School’s degree and non-degree education portfolio. He will also continue to oversee the Advanced Learning Academy, the School’s recently updated lifelong learning portfolio of non-degree offerings, including executive education and professional development, short courses, microcredentials, summer programs, and more.

Rifat will lead a comprehensive review of our education enterprise and develop a clear vision and multi-year strategy for education. It will build on the tremendous work and transformational recommendations brought forward by the education working group of the School’s strategic planning process and align with a strategic framework that prioritizes a solutions orientation in our teaching curricula and research choices.

This will entail fostering a culture of educational innovation and experimentation, including the design, piloting, evaluation, and scaling of new educational models, credentials, and offerings, enabled by new technologies and AI. Rifat will work to identify and develop strategic collaborations across Harvard and externally to expand the impact of our educational offerings.

Rifat brings deep expertise and experience in education theory, methods, and administration to his new role. Earlier in his career, Rifat designed and led several master’s courses at Imperial College London. He has also developed and delivered executive education programs for leading global companies and public enterprises. As director of the Health Systems Innovation Lab at Harvard Chan School, he oversees an annual international hackathon and venture incubation program.

Please join me in congratulating Rifat on becoming our dean for education and innovation.

I want to express my deep appreciation to our continuing Senior Associate Dean for Educational Programs Nancy Turnbull for her outstanding work shaping and shepherding our School’s education programs during this extremely challenging period. Nancy also has brought exceptional vision to her role as co-chair of the education working group for the strategic planning process. Thank you so much, Nancy!

Best,

Andrea

Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD
Dean of the Faculty