Paul Grogan Named New Vice President

Paul S. Grogan will become the University's new Vice President for Government, Community, and Public Affairs, President Neil L. Rudenstine announced this week.

Since 1986, Grogan has served as the president and chief executive officer of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a major nonprofit organization that finances inner city and rural revitalization efforts across the United States.

With Massachusetts roots reaching back to his days as a student at both Williams College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Grogan is known locally as the former director of the City of Boston's Neighborhood Development and Employment Agency as well as the Boston Community School Program. He has substantial experience in Washington and in the dozens of communities across the country where LISC has offices and programs.

"Paul Grogan is an unusually effective leader with a strong sense of community and a lifelong concern for education," Rudenstine said. "He has had years of experience in building, guiding, and expanding important not-for-profit programs through collaborative efforts with cities and towns, community organizations, corporations and foundations, and policy makers in Washington. He has a keen eye for the role that not-for-profit organizations can play in their local communities, as well as at the state and national levels. He will add significantly to the University's important work both locally and in Washington, and it will be a genuine pleasure to welcome him back to Harvard and to Cambridge and Boston."

"I am delighted to accept President Rudenstine's offer to head Harvard's external relations in the years ahead," said Grogan. "The University is a vital resource to its host communities of Cambridge and Boston, to the nation, and to the world. There is extraordinary potential for Harvard and the community to develop a wide array of possible collaborations. I hope that I can make a meaningful contribution to the University and beyond."

Under Grogan's leadership, LISC has grown from a New York-based operation with 20 employees to a national institution with 500 employees and 42 offices across the country. Last year alone, LISC provided $540 million in grants, loans, and equity to development efforts throughout the U.S. With Grogan's guidance, LISC has extended its reach beyond housing and community development into direct job creation, business development, child care, public safety, and education.

His work at LISC has placed him at the center of national legislative and public strategy for community development, and has involved him in organizing large coalitions of major U.S. foundations and corporations in support of LISC's programs. He has also been responsible for mounting an ambitious public affairs effort at LISC, and is himself an accomplished speaker, lecturer, and writer. His work at LISC has entailed close contact with members of Congress and other key figures in national and local government, as well as with the media.

Before joining LISC in 1986, Grogan served in a number of senior posts in the City of Boston. From 1975 to 1985, he was deputy director and then director of the City's Neighborhood Development and Employment Agency. In those roles he guided the management of Boston's resources in neighborhood economic development, housing, job training, and social services. His accomplishments included the creation of the Adult Literacy Initiative, a collaborative project that joined the city, the school system, businesses, higher education, and Boston's neighborhoods in the effort to combat functional illiteracy. He also helped design and negotiate the Boston Compact, a partnership between public schools and local businesses that provides part-time, summer, and postgraduate private-sector job opportunities for students within schools embarked on verifiable reform efforts.

As director of the Boston Community School Program from 1978 to 1980, Grogan led the city agency responsible for providing after-hours educational and social service programs for students in 20 Boston public schools. Previously, from 1975 to 1978, he was Special Assistant to Boston Mayor Kevin White, a role in which he served as the Mayor's chief speechwriter and director of research and policy planning.

Grogan holds a bachelor's degree, with highest honors, from Williams College, which in 1997 awarded him a Bicentennial Medal given to alumni who have made special contributions to the public good. He was a secondary school teacher in Milwaukee after college, and went on to earn a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1978. His wife, Karen Sunnarborg, is a city planner with a master's degree in planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. They have three children.