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December 9, 2024
EVANSTON, Ill. --- P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, associate provost for faculty and Frances Willard Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, has been elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers.
The primary function of the Board of Overseers is to encourage Harvard University to maintain the highest attainable standards as a place of learning.
Chase-Lansdale, a 1974 graduate of Harvard, was on the slate of candidates supported by the “Coalition for a Diverse Harvard.” The coalition cited Chase-Lansdale for having “a strong track record in building diverse and inclusive academic communities.”
“I believe strongly in addressing equity and inclusion and in building diverse communities that thrive by exploring new knowledge and debating various perspectives,” Chase-Lansdale said. She is particularly interested “in strengthening diversity and inclusion among faculty and in promoting faculty skills that advance the success of students from underrepresented groups, first-generation college students and low-income students.”
Chase-Lansdale specializes in multidisciplinary research on societal issues that affect families and the development of children and youth — especially those who are economically disadvantaged. A former American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Congressional Science Fellow, she is a national expert on the interface between research and public policy.
Drawing on the broad experience and expertise of its members, the Board of Overseers exerts broad influence over Harvard’s strategic direction, provides essential counsel to the university’s leadership on priorities and plans and has the power of consent to certain actions, such as the election of members of the Harvard Corporation. Among its chief functions, the board oversees the visitation process, the principal mechanism for periodic external review of the quality and direction of Harvard’s schools, departments and other selected programs and activities.
Chase-Lansdale, a faculty fellow at Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research, chaired the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, served on the advisory board of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Urban Seminar Series on Children’s Health and Safety, and is a member of the Harvard Club of Chicago. She also chaired the board of directors of the Foundation for Child Development, a visionary philanthropy dedicated to improving the lives of children through research and policy, and she serves on the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program.
Her leadership in the academy also includes co-chairing the Chicago Collaboration for Women in STEM, and she heads Northwestern’s Public Voices Fellowships, which works to increase the prevalence of underrepresented voices in the public media.
