Mark Moore named first Herbert A. Simon Professor

Mark Moore, a leading expert in criminal justice, police, management, nongovernmental organizations, and nonprofit management, has been appointed the first Herbert A. Simon Professor in Education, Management, and Organizational Behavior at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), effective July 1. Moore will maintain his current appointment as the Hauser Professor of Nonprofit Organizations at the John F. Kennedy School of Government (HKS).

“Mark is a major scholar on strategy and leadership for nonprofit organizations. His reputation as a builder of public management knowledge and curriculum is without parallel,” said HGSE Dean Kathleen McCartney. “There is no one in the public policy field who has had a greater influence on developing the intellectual base for leadership and management content, and we are thrilled that Mark is now focusing his considerable talents on the education sector.”

Known for his work in law enforcement and community policing, Moore is also keenly interested in how leaders of public organizations engage communities in supporting and legitimatizing their work. His best-known book, “Creating Public Value” (Harvard University Press, 1997), is considered one of the most important works in the public management field. He has worked closely with the HGSE in the past, including playing an active role on the exploratory committee for the School’s new leadership degree program, a practice-based doctoral program slated for launch in 2010.

“The proposed new program in education leadership is the most interesting innovation in professional education that is now occurring at Harvard, and I am excited to be a part of it,” said Moore. “The education sector represents a substantive new domain which I can use to study the larger processes of social change, facilitated by institutional roles, and new forms of public leadership. And the leadership program represents a bold new step in my lifelong interest in figuring out how to prepare professional students for the challenges of their professional life.”

Moore holds a Ph.D. and an M.P.P. from HKS and an undergraduate degree in political science and economics from Yale University.

Created in 2006, the Simon Chair in Education, Management, and Organizational Behavior is named after the late Herbert A. Simon, a Nobel Prize-winning researcher in the fields of economic sociology, philosophy, public administration, computer science, and cognitive psychology.