Campus & Community

Harvard College announces new dean of students

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Katherine O’Dair to assume role in August

Danoff Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana announced today the appointment of Katherine O’Dair as dean of students. O’Dair will begin working in this role in August.

O’Dair will report to the Danoff Dean of Harvard College, and will oversee all initiatives that support Harvard’s distinctive residential House system and student involvement outside the classroom. In addition, she will oversee the College’s efforts to integrate the academic, residential, and co-curricular spheres of students’ lives, linking out-of-classroom experiences to the mission of the College.

“I am delighted that Katie has agreed to take on this exciting and critical role at Harvard College,” Khurana said. “With years of student life experience, managing an array of programs at Boston College and MIT, she is ideally suited for this position. I look forward to working with Katie to make our Office of Student Life programs and resources more robust and accessible for every member of the College community.”

Prior to accepting this position, O’Dair served as the associate vice president for student affairs at Boston College. In that role, she was responsible for supervising the engagement area, which included counseling services, Offices of Graduate Student Life, Health Services, the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center, and the Women’s Center. O’Dair also oversaw assessment efforts within the division of student affairs, the creation of collaborative programs with academic affairs, and diversity initiatives within the division. In addition, she served as the student affairs Title IX coordinator.

O’Dair was the associate dean for graduate student life at Boston College and an assistant dean in the division of student life at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, a master’s degree in student personnel and counseling from Northeastern University, and a Ph.D. in higher education from the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. She is actively involved in the National Association for Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and has served in leadership positions both regionally and nationally. She is a competitive Masters swimmer, avid trail runner and cyclist, and serves on the volunteer leadership team in Sturbridge for the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC).