Nonie Lesaux named HGSE dean

Nonie K. Lesaux, the Roy Edward Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development, has been named dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Lesaux has served as interim dean since July.

“For the past eight months, Nonie has led as interim dean with a wonderful combination of energy and insight,” said Harvard President Alan M. Garber. “Amid unprecedented challenges to both K-12 and higher education, she has demonstrated her ability to meet the moment, bringing to her work courage, humility, and respect in equal measure, motivated always by a deep sense of obligation to the School and its vital mission.”

Lesaux is a developmental psychologist whose career has focused on strategies and innovations to improve learning opportunities and literacy outcomes for children and youth and on leading system-level change in education.

She is currently co-director of the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Ed School, which addresses the global challenge of scaling and improving the quality of early education through research, professional development for educational leaders, and graduate training. The Zaentz initiative includes the Early Learning Study at Harvard, a first-of-its-kind statewide study that examines the effects of early education and care settings on children’s learning and development.

“This is a complex time for the education sector, but I can think of no institution better matched to address today’s needs,” Lesaux said. “In the eight months since I assumed the role of interim dean, I have witnessed the ways in which our Ed School community has stepped up to think both critically and collaboratively about our mission and work in service to society. Our collective effort matters more today than perhaps ever.”

A widely respected scholar and educator, Lesaux has written and edited numerous scholarly publications onchildren’s literacy development and learning. She has also translated ideas from her research into several books for school leaders and educators.

This work has informed how states and districts approach the teaching of reading across the country, including inspiring Massachusetts legislation intended to advance third-grade reading proficiency. Her research was also used to establish a framework for literacy reform in the New York City and Chicago public schools.

Lesaux has served in leadership roles on the national and state level, including as a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s Reading First Advisory Committee and the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council’s Committee on the Science of Children Birth to Age 8.

In addition, she chaired the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care from 2015 to 2022, which provided oversight of the state agency that licenses and supports childcare and community-based public programs for young children.

Her previous institutional leadership roles at the Ed School include academic dean and faculty director of doctoral studies.

“I’m delighted that Nonie Lesaux will become dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education,” said Provost John F. Manning. “She is a collaborative, creative, and inspiring leader, who will lead HGSE with distinction.”

Lesaux joined the Ed School faculty in 2003 as an assistant professor. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia and was a postdoctoral research fellow at BC Children’s Hospital. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology, with honors, from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada.

Lesaux has earned numerous honors, including the William T. Grant Scholars Award and the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to young professionals beginning their independent research careers. In 2019 she was elected to the National Academy of Education.

She serves on the board of the Spencer Foundation and as an expert consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Educational Opportunities Section.

Lesaux succeeds Bridget Long, the Saris Professor of Education and Economics at the Ed School and a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, who left the post at the end of the last academic year.